Hunter v. United States · ¶44

Of course, it was not always so. At the Nation's founding, the right to trial by jury was considered part of every American's “birth-right and inheritance.” 3 J. Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States § 1773, p. 652 (1833). Outraged by British efforts to deny that right in the colonies, those who fought the Revolution cited its suppression as one of their reasons for declaring independence. Declaration of Independence ¶20. After the Revolution, too, the founding generation took care to secure the right to trial by jury in criminal cases not just once, but twice, in the Constitution and Bill of Rights they adopted. Art. III, § 2, cl. 3; Amdt. 6; see also Erlinger v. United States, 602 U. S. 821, 829–832 (2024).

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