Juries for Takings Liability: Treating Litigants Alike

Manatt Appellate Senior Counsel wrote an article for The Journal of Law, Economics & Policy about the historical and legal background of the right to a jury trial and the controversy surrounding the Seventh Amendment’s application to state courts.

While most Bill of Rights protections have been incorporated against states through the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, the civil jury trial right in the Seventh Amendment remains one of the few exceptions. Berger said this assertion is based on limited precedent and has caused confusion.

“It is time to stop the accretion of rights by the slow drip-by-drip method of individual addition,” Berger said. “The Bill of Rights should apply across the board against states and localities, just as it does against the federal government.”

Read the full article .