Our Threatened Freedom

What is a Witness

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 7-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 007

Dictation Name: Vol. A – Part 07 – What is a Witness

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] What is a witness? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

Our system of legal justice is increasingly in trouble. Both the criminal courts and the civil courts. There are many reasons for this problem, but for the present let us concentrate on one. The witness. In any case, the witness is perhaps the most important single factor. Attorneys bring to a case their legal knowledge and a planned and researched defense. A lawyer knows only as much of a case as he is told. The judge brings to his case a knowledge of the law also, and the responsibility to define the law as it relates to the case, keep the conduct of the case within the law, and unless there is a jury, to render a decision. However, no decision can be made without evidence, all the evidence is presented by witnesses. This makes the witness the key factor in the legal process. This should also tell us why there is a problem in our courts today.

Witnesses do not take their responsibility seriously enough. They appear often reluctantly and with little appreciation of their importance. I’ve often seen witness who had a great deal of knowledge about the case content themselves with inadequate answers. A yes or no, a short sentence which says all too little, and a general feeling of wanting to get off the stand as quickly as possible. A witness provides the evidence which makes a decision possible. Without the witnesses, neither side has a case. We have no right to complain about the results of a trial, if we do not do our duty faithfully when we are witnesses.

But this is not all. A good witness can help change the law. When a law is passed, its meaning is then established by courtroom decisions which stand, or are made, in higher courts. It is the evidence presented which throws light on the question on trial, and which provides the material for case law. Case law, the decisions which determine, develop, or limit a statute, depends heavily on the testimony provided by witnesses.

One case, in which I appeared as a witness in 1978, has been appealed to that state Supreme Court, and now in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court. The testimonies of those of us who appeared as witnesses may thus prove to be decisive, in one of the most important cases in the country today. Because of our system of case law, the witness has a very important part to play in the law making process. We have no right to complain about bad laws or bad decisions if we refuse to play our part as witnesses when called to do so. The very word witness has an important history and meaning. It is basic to the New Testament and to the life of the early Church. We still speak commonly of witnessing to our faith. A true witness speaks for the truth. The purpose of an honest witness is to bring that aspect of the truth which we know, to the attention of the law and the court. Good witnesses thus provide for a meeting and union between law and truth. We cannot afford unwilling witnesses. It is a disaster for both truth and the law.