The jury trial has greatly diminished in federal court. Where once some 10% of cases filed in federal court resulted in a jury trial in the 1960’s, that number has now decreased to less than 1%. The judge proposed for the U.S. Supreme Court wants to help bring back the federal court trial. Judge Neil Gorsuch, nominated by Donald Trump for the Supreme Court, and Judge Susan Graber propose making jury trials the default for all civil lawsuits filed. Currently, a plaintiff must specifically ask for a jury when s/he files a new lawsuit. The two judges proposed this change to the federal rules of civil procedure in a June, 2016 letter to the federal Judiciary’s Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure.

The two judges cited several reasons, but their reasons essentially boil down to simply supporting the Seventh Amendment guarantee of jury trials. See ABA Bar Journal report.