The 7th Amendment

The 7th Amendment is very unusual. It speaks to trials at Common Law (civil trials), rather than criminal trials. It states that in trials where the value of the potential award is greater than twenty dollars, the accused has the right to demand that they be tried by a jury; and that no facts tried by a jury shall be reconsidered in any court in the United States other than by the rules of common law.

What does this mean? It means that in any civil case where the potential award is more than twenty (20) dollars, the person who stands to lose the money has the right to insist that their case be heard by a jury. It also means that once this type of case is decided by a jury, it cannot be retried unless the rules of common law are upheld. The rules of common law are generally decided by either the States individually, or, in some cases, by local communities.

Why twenty dollars? The standard that money was based on then was the gold piece. The largest coin in circulation at that time was a twenty dollar gold piece.