This Germ of Rottedness: Federal Trials in the New Republic, 1789-1807
Loading...
Authors
Blinka, Daniel D.
Issue Date
2003
Volume
36
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
INTRODUCTION|Trial by jury has been a cherished, almost sacred right of our public culture since the republic's earliest days. Historian Jack Rakove argues that the American Revolution conferred "preeminent importance" on the rights to representation and to trial by jury. John Phillip Reid concurs that juries enjoyed a "special American attachment" at the nation's founding.|Yet distinguished commentators have bemoaned the nation's founding as a lost opportunity to rethink the role of juries. Akhil Amar proclaims that juries "were at the heart of the Bill of Rights"because they "played a leading role in protecting ordinary individuals against governmental overreaching." Nonetheless, Amar chides the founders for missing an opportunity for "rethinking" the role of the jury. Amar's criticism implies that the Founding Fathers were strangely obtuse to the jury's democratic potential or at least blinded because the "jury, as a local body, beautifully fit the localism of the Revolution...
Description
Citation
36 Creighton L. Rev. 135 (2002-2003)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law