Value the Whole Bill of Rights

In the United States we value our rights established in our Constitution. We value our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We value our Second Amendment rights, our right to keep and bear arms. We hope we never have to use our Fifth Amendment rights, like the privilege against self-incrimination, or the “right to remain silent,” but we value that right.

The right that doesn’t get as much attention is our Seventh Amendment right. The Seventh Amendment includes our right to trial by jury. The right to trial by jury was just as important to our Founding Fathers in the original structure of our Constitution as these other rights. Before trial by jury was an established right, the King of England, or other government officials, could hold summary trials that were favorable to the government and against the rights of the people.

The Seventh Amendment changes that. It establishes that in our civil and criminal courts, citizens should be the finders of fact and the key decision makers, rather than being judged by a bureaucrat, official, or a servant of the King. We as Americans, have the right to be judged by one another.

Our Seventh Amendment right is under persistent attack. It turns out that not just the King, but other powerful interests, don’t like being judged by citizens. They prefer to be judged by someone that they pick, that they influence, or that they control. We see this sort of thing all the time when cases are forced into arbitration at the behest of wealthy corporations that write contracts favorably to them as a method for taking away your right to a jury trial. We also see it when laws attempt to prejudge cases by trying to decide for the jury in advance what is a fair and just penalty for a wrongdoer.

People go back and forth debating the wisdom of these types of laws or the utility of arbitration, but that really isn’t the issue. The point is these laws are unconstitutional. They impinge on the right to trial by jury, as established in our West Virginia and United States Constitutions. Unless and until we decide to change that Constitution, that should be answer enough as to why some laws are not being enforced.