Walker v. Sauvinet 92 U.S. 90 (1876)

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WALKER v. SAUVINET 92 U.S. 90 (1876)

Walker lost a civil judgment in a trial decided by a judge, in conformance with state law, after the jury deadlocked and after Walker had demanded trial by jury. The Court held, 7–2, that the seventh amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing trial by jury in civil actions at law, applied only in federal courts, and that the right to a jury trial in similar state cases was not a privilege of United States citizenship guaranteed by the privileges and immunities clause of the fourteenth amendment. This was the earliest rejection of the incorporation doctrine. Its result is still good law, long after the latter doctrine's triumph.

Leonard W. Levy
(1986)

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Walker v. Sauvinet 92 U.S. 90 (1876)

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