The seventh Amendment really intrigues me:
In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
In criminal cases the right to a trial by jury is absolute for civilians regardless of the crime in question. In civil cases the founders obviously felt that citizens might not want to trust a judge to decide cases involving large sums of money. I don’t know exactly how much $20 was in 1787 but it’s very little today. I think this amendment would be burdensome if it required rather than allowing trial by jury for any amount of money not indexed to inflation.
The intent of the amendment seems to be to preserve the citizens rights tot heir own property by making it impossible to simply get a judge to enter a judgment against them in civil court cases and thus strip them of their property. Is there some other reason that I am overlooking?
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