Trial by Jury on Life Support

Earlier this month, the New York Times ran a headline “Trial by Jury, a Hallowed American Right, Is Vanishing.” This is very true. It’s a trend that we at Cato have been lamenting for many years. Despite the clear language of the Sixth Amendment, that the accused shall enjoy the right to trial by jury in “all criminal prosecutions,” the government manages to oversee a system where jury trials are quite rare–only about 1 percent of the criminal cases will be decided by juries.


Fortunately, there’s a new book that calls attention to this problem, The Missing American Jury, by Professor Suja Thomas. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban recommends the book, saying jury trial “is a right that you never think you will need … until you do.” Precisely. Beyond the criminal area, the administrative state is also trampling the right to jury trial in the civil area. 


For a podcast interview with Suja Thomas, go here.


For related Cato scholarship, go here and here.