america's favorite f-words: "founding fathers"

[rone]

Amendment VII

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 reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

The question i have is, what does twenty 1789 dollars come out to be in today's currency?

Oh, and another question: why twenty dollars?

Comments

[vampyrecat.livejournal.com]

Um, no.

First, that applies only in federal court, not state court.
To read more, go here: http://www.ajs.org/jc/juries/jc_right_overview.asp

Second, federal subject matter jurisdiction over civil cases is a bit more complex than the amendment suggests. Concerning subject matter jurisdiction granted to federal courts the amount in controversy now must be $75,000, unless they changed it when I wasn't looking.

To read more, go here: http://www.west.net/~smith/smjuris.htm

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Hmm, it looks like it says the minimum is $75,000 just for "diversity jurisdiction", that is, federal jurisdiction arising from the fact that the parties live in different states; whereas a federal suit over something that inherently has to do with federal law could happen over less.

In any event, it does look as if the twenty-dollar specification doesn't mean much any more.

[vampyrecat.livejournal.com]

Right.

The federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction over matters other than diversity jurisdiction. For example, there is no lower dollar limit on matters that involve a federal question.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info!