The founders didn’t intend for us to legislate from the jury box. If you do that, how is that not essentially ignoring the law? And what say you to the great unwashed, brain dead liberal masses out there who believe that every single immigration law and drug law we have on the books is “unjust” or “racist”? It’s right for me but not for thee ain’t gonna cut it…
The founders definitely believed that juries in criminal trials played an important role in holding government to the principles of the Constitution. That is easily verifiable. You do however make a great point that such power is best wielded by a moral people and we are rapidly running out of those.