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Page Number: 55

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

3 

THOMAS, J., concurring in judgment 

U. S.  ___,  ___  (2019)  (concurring  opinion)  (slip  op.,  at  2). 
There is considerable evidence that the phrase “trial . . . by 
. . . jury” in the Sixth Amendment was understood since the 
founding  to  require  that  a  felony  guilty  verdict  be  unani-
mous.  Because  our  precedents  are  thus  not  outside  the
realm of permissible interpretation, I will apply them. 

1 
Blackstone—“the  preeminent  authority  on  English  law 
for the founding generation,” Alden v. Maine, 527 U. S. 706, 
715 (1999)—wrote that no subject can “be affected either in
his  property,  his  liberty,  or  his  person,  but  by  the  unani-
mous consent” of a jury, 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on 
the Laws of England 379 (1772); see also 4 id., at 343.  An-
other influential treatise author, Hale, wrote that “the law 
of England hath afforded the best method of trial, that is
possible, . . . namely by a jury . . . all concurring in the same 
judgment.”  1 M. Hale, Pleas of the Crown 33 (1736) (em-
phasis deleted).  Such views continued in scholarly works 
throughout the early Republic.  See, e.g., 2 J. Story, Com-
mentaries  on  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  §777, 
p. 248  (1833);  6  N.  Dane,  Digest  of  American  Law,  ch.
LXXXII, Art. 2, §1, p. 226 (1824); 2 J. Wilson, Works of the 
Honourable James Wilson 349–350 (1804). 

The  uniform  practice  among  the  States  was  in  accord. 
Despite  isolated  17th-century  colonial  practices  allowing
nonunanimous juries, “unanimity became the accepted rule
during the 18th century, as Americans became more famil-
iar  with  the  details  of  English  common  law  and  adopted
those details in their own colonial legal systems.”  Apodaca, 
supra, at 408, n. 3 (plurality opinion).  In the founding era, 
six States explicitly mentioned unanimity in their constitu-
tions.  See Del. Declaration of Rights §14 (1776); Md. Dec-
laration  of  Rights,  Art. XIX  (1776);  N. C.  Declaration  of 
Rights §IX (1776); Pa. Declaration of Rights, Art. IX (1776);
Vt.  Const.,  Art.  XI  (1786);  Va.  Declaration  of  Rights  §8