{"id":2300,"date":"2010-07-18T03:04:40","date_gmt":"2010-07-18T10:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2010-07-18T03:04:40","modified_gmt":"2010-07-18T10:04:40","slug":"constitutional-amendments-article-vii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/07\/18\/constitutional-amendments-article-vii\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional Amendments: Article VII"},"content":{"rendered":"

 \"constitution\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

We have been covering the US Constitution line by line.  When Republicans wave their paper props and parrot their vile machinations, we will be prepared to expose the lies.  We have finished the main body of the Constitution.  Now we continue with the Amendments.  You can find the last article on the main body of the Constitution<\/font> here<\/a>. It has links to all the others.  The text comes from<\/font> The US Constitution<\/a>.  Previous articles in the Amendment series:<\/font><\/p>\n

Article I<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Articles II and III<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Article IV<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Article V<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n
Article VI<\/font><\/a><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

Article [VII]<\/h3>\n
\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The 7th Amendment is a little confusing.  It appears to guarantee a jury trial in all civil cases, but it does not.  It refers to British common law as it existed in 1791.  Common law divided civil cases into two categories: actions in law and actions in equity.  Thus we are guaranteed a jury trial for actions in law, but not for actions in equity.  Cases demanding monetary damages are actions in law.  Cases demanding injunctions, rescission, specific performance, etc. are actions in equity.<\/font><\/p>\n

This is controversial in two places.<\/font><\/p>\n

Republicans repeatedly claim that Justices may not refer to any document other than the Constitution in deciding cases.  Isn\u2019t that rather obtuse given that the Constitution itself refers to another document?<\/font><\/p>\n

Republicans support the notion that giant corporations may include arbitration clauses in financial and employment documents.  These clauses force resolution of civil disputes by arbiters the corporations choose.  Since such disputes involve monetary damages, they are actions in law, and the arbitration clauses attempt to circumvent the right to a jury.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  We have been covering the US Constitution line by line.  When Republicans wave their paper props and parrot their vile machinations, we will be prepared to expose the lies.  We have finished the main body of the Constitution.  Now we continue with the Amendments.  You can find the last article on the main body […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","category-politics","category-19-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}