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Page Number: 13.0

8 

SEC v. JARKESY 

Opinion of the Court 

severing our ties to England.  See Declaration of Independ-
ence ¶20; see generally Erlinger v. United States, 602 U. S. 
___, ___–___ (2024).

In  the  Revolution’s  aftermath,  perhaps  the  “most  suc-
cess[ful]” critique leveled against the proposed Constitution 
was its “want of a . . . provision for the trial by jury in civil 
cases.”  The Federalist No. 83, p. 495 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961) 
(A. Hamilton) (emphasis deleted).  The Framers promptly
adopted the Seventh Amendment to fix that flaw.  In so do-
ing, they “embedded” the right in the Constitution, securing
it  “against  the  passing  demands  of  expediency  or  conven-
ience.”  Reid v. Covert, 354 U. S. 1, 10 (1957) (plurality opin-
ion).    Since  then,  “every  encroachment  upon  it  has  been 
watched  with  great  jealousy.”    Parsons  v.  Bedford,  3  Pet. 
433, 446 (1830). 

2 
By its text, the Seventh Amendment guarantees that in 
“[s]uits at common law, . . . the right of trial by jury shall be 
preserved.”  In  construing  this  language,  we  have  noted 
that  the  right  is  not  limited  to  the  “common-law  forms  of
action recognized” when the Seventh Amendment was rat-
ified.  Curtis v. Loether, 415 U. S. 189, 193 (1974).  As Jus-
tice Story explained, the Framers used the term “common
law” in the Amendment “in contradistinction to equity, and
admiralty,  and  maritime  jurisprudence.”  Parsons,  3  Pet., 
at  446.  The  Amendment  therefore  “embrace[s]  all  suits
which are not of equity or admiralty jurisdiction, whatever 
may be the peculiar form which they may assume.”  Id., at 
447. 

The Seventh Amendment extends to a particular statu-
tory claim if the claim is “legal in nature.”  Granfinanciera, 
492 U. S., at 53.  As we made clear in Tull, whether that 
claim is statutory is immaterial to this analysis.  See 481 
U. S., at 414–415, 417–425.  In that case, the Government 
sued  a  real  estate  developer  for  civil  penalties  in  federal