"Juries give me hope," I wrote in these pages recently. That feeling was confirmed again today when a Washington, D.C. jury declared Sean Dunn not guilty of misdemeanor assault.

Dunn became a cause célèbre in his hometown last August when he hurled a Subway sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent stalking the streets of the nation's capital. Donald Trump, our Dear Leader, had deployed National Guard troops to the streets of D.C., seized control of the local constabulary and activated the FBI as well as agents from Homeland Security to police the town where Sean lived. Mostly, the troops have been picking up litter there, even though Trump invoked emergency powers under the pretext of rescuing the capital "from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse."

The sight of armed thugs in body armor waging war against Americans evidently triggered a reaction in Mr. Dunn, an Air Force staff sergeant veteran who during his years in uniform received numerous commendations: the Korean Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Air Force Legacy Service Award, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, and other citations too numerous to mention. Yelling at the fascists to go home, he threw a sandwich at one of them.

Dunn claimed he was trying to protect immigrants, in particular those who might be attending "Latin Night" at a nearby gay bar. United States Attorney General Pam Bondi countered that he was acting as an agent of the "Deep State."

But attempts to charge Sean Dunn with felony assault collapsed when a D.C. Grand Jury refused to indict him. (This follows a recent pattern across the country, where usually compliant Grand Juries have turned mavericky.) Unable to secure a felony indictment, government lawyers then charged Dunn with a lesser misdemeanor offense, which still could have carried substantial penalties.

After a multi-day trial, however, jurors unanimously found him not guilty, effectively telling Trump and his Trumped Up Justice Department to pound sand. Maybe it was "jury nullification." Or perhaps the jurors simply found the state's evidence unconvincing. (One of the beauties of our justice system is that jurors don't have to explain or defend their reasoning.) Either way, their decision is irrevocable.

Our nation's founders wisely gave juries the final say in criminal matters, trusting ordinary citizens—our neighbors and fellow citizens—to wield the scales of justice. While Article III of the Constitution establishes a Supreme Court, it also affirms that "the Trial of All Crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury" (Section 2, Clause 3). The framers considered jury trial so important that they affixed it into the Bill of Rights not once, but three times, in Amendments Five, Six, and Seven.

So Donald Trump may call his political enemies scum, law breakers and criminals, saying they all belong in jail. But we the people will be the ones who ultimately render the verdict on this regime.

The power to pass judgment is our birthright. And despite the illegalities and flagrant abuses of power emanating from this White House, justice may still be done.