On this Independence Day (2025), it is worthwhile to reflect on the ideals on which our country was founded. On example is the right to trial by jury.
As recently summarized by the court in Texas v. Google LLC, 2025 WL 1713256 (E.D.Tex. June 18, 2025):
The abrogation of the right to trial by jury was one of the American colonists’ principal grievances against the British Crown, specifically included among the indictments of George III in the Declaration of Independence. See THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE para. 20 (U.S. 1776) (“For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury[.]”). Every one of the thirteen original States guaranteed the right to trial by jury—many in worshipful terms3—making the right “probably the only one universally secured by the first American state constitutions.” Leonard W. Levy, Legacy of Suppression: Freedom of Speech and Press in Early American History 281 (1960).
Despite this history, however, the civil jury right was not initially included in the Constitution, and its omission proved a stumbling block for ratification. Indeed, arguably the objection to the proposed Constitution that gained the most currency, “well-nigh preventing its ratification,” was its failure to guarantee the right to trial by jury in civil cases. 2 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States § 1763 (5th ed. 1891); see also United States v. ERR, LLC, 35 F.4th 405, 409 (5th Cir. 2022) (“The omission generated fierce criticism from the Anti-Federalists.”). In the face of such criticism, and in ratifying the Constitution, seven of the original thirteen States did so with the strong recommendation that it be promptly amended to include a Bill of Rights. Six of those seven States urged a specific guarantee of the right to trial by jury in civil cases.4 That was accomplished when, with no recorded debate, the Seventh Amendment was ratified.
The Supreme Court early on reaffirmed the historic significance of the right to trial by jury. See, e.g., Parsons v. Bedford, 28 U.S. (3 Pet.) 433, 446, 7 L.Ed. 732 (1830) (Story, J.) (“The trial by jury is justly dear to the American people. It has always been an object of deep interest and solicitude, and every encroachment upon it has been watched with great jealousy.”). And over time, the Court has consistently confirmed that this right is “ ‘of such importance and occupies so firm a place in our history and jurisprudence that any seeming curtailment of the right’ has always been and ‘should be scrutinized with the utmost care.’ ” SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109, 121, 144 S.Ct. 2117, 219 L.Ed.2d 650 (2024) (quoting Dimick v. Schiedt, 293 U.S. 474, 486, 55 S.Ct. 296, 79 L.Ed. 603 (1935)); see also Jacob v. City of New York, 315 U.S. 752, 752–53, 62 S.Ct. 854, 86 L.Ed. 1166 (1942) (“A right so fundamental and sacred to the citizen … should be jealously guarded by the courts.”).
Happy July 4th!