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

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Indeedy, and I have to confess that this one had slipped under my own radar until now. It seems further confirmation, if any were needed [1], that we are heading for a certain creek, without a certain implement.

[1] In a similar-but-different "oh shit" vein, the other day saw the strange and scary experience of Tony Blair citing his religious faith when defending the war in Iraq. I know that certain US politicians like to invoke some bloke in the sky at every opportunity, to justify any number of heinous activities (if he does support half the things he is claimed to be in favour of, I'm all for impeachment of deities), but such God references are a genuine rarity over here.