What is the Seventh Amendment?

The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial in civil cases involving more than twenty dollars and limits how courts may review jury verdicts. Ratified on December 15, 1791, its forty-three words declare that 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. The amendment grew from colonial frustration with British vice-admiralty courts that decided commercial cases without juries, a complaint listed in the 1776 Declaration of Independence as depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.

Anti-Federalists made jury trial in civil suits a precondition for ratifying the Constitution, and James Madison drafted this amendment to satisfy that demand. The protection applies to suits at common law, meaning legal claims for money damages and similar remedies, as opposed to suits in equity, which sought injunctions, specific performance, or other discretionary relief. Tull v. United States (1989) and Curtis v. Loether (1974) explained that the test focuses on whether the action would have been tried before a jury in 1791 England.

Modern statutory claims that are analogous to common law claims, such as employment discrimination suits seeking damages, also trigger the right. The Supreme Court has held in Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad v. Bombolis (1916) and Walker v. Sauvinet (1875) that this clause is one of the few in the Bill of Rights not incorporated against the states, although every state constitution provides some right to civil jury trial.

The amendment is significant in modern litigation. Federal civil juries typically have six to twelve members under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and verdicts in federal court must generally be unanimous. The reexamination clause limits how trial judges and appellate courts may overturn jury verdicts, although a court may grant a new trial if the verdict is against the weight of the evidence and may enter judgment as a matter of law if no reasonable jury could find for one side.

Class actions, mass torts, and complex commercial disputes routinely involve jury trials, and federal courts disposed of roughly four thousand civil jury trials in fiscal year 2023. Beacon Theatres v. Westover (1959) protects the right when legal and equitable claims overlap. Naturalization candidates should know that ordinary money damage suits, including breach of contract, personal injury, and discrimination claims, may be tried before juries in federal court.