Rothbard on the Right Not to Testify
March 8, 2019
The courageous Chelsea Manning has the right not to testify to a Grand Jury or any jury. Murray Rothbard explained this in 1978.
No branch of government owns your body in libertarian law. Therefore, it doesn’t own what you may or may not know, or have heard, or have seen, or have thought. It doesn’t own your capacity to speak or write or otherwise transmit words.
A court that fines you, jails you, or holds you in contempt for not speaking is attempting to coerce testimony. The process in this respect resembles torture. The court, in denial of your right not to testify, acts as if it owns you or part of you.
Michael S. Rozeff [send him mail] is a retired Professor of Finance living in East Amherst, New York. He is the author of the free e-book Essays on American Empire: Liberty vs. Domination and the free e-book The U.S. Constitution and Money: Corruption and Decline.
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