I thought “jury nullification” was only used by liberals and other ilk who have no respect or understanding for the Constitution.
I don't know where you picked up that notion. People of all ideological stripes give in to the temptation to nullify laws they don't like at the moment.
Depends on whether you'd consider American Founding Fathers like John Adams or John Peter Zenger to be *liberals* or not. It's probably more accurate to think of them nowadays as Libertarians.
"It is not only his right, [the juror's] but his duty – to find the verdict according to his own best understanding, judgment, and conscience, though in direct opposition to the direction of the court."--John Adams (Yale Law Journal, 1964:173)
In a case involving the civil forfeiture of private property by the state of Georgia, first Supreme Court Justice John Jay, instructed jurors that the jury has "a right to determine the law as well as the fact in controversy." (Georgia vs. Brailsford, 1794:4)
The jury's veto power protects minorities from "the body of the people, operating by the majority against the minority." "In short, if the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing to protect the people against the oppressions of government; for there are no oppressions which the government may not authorize by law." --James Madison, June 8, 1789