Beacon Theatres, Inc. v. Westover

Mr. Justice Stewart, with whom Mr. Justice Harlan and Mr. Justi-pe Whittaker concur,

dissenting.

There can be no doubt that a litigant is entitled to a writ of mandamus to protect a clear constitutional or statutory right to a jury trial. But there was no denial of such a right here. The district judge simply exercised his inherent discretion, now explicitly confirmed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to schedule the trial of an equitable claim in advance of an action at law. Even an abuse of such discretion could not, I think, be attacked *512by the extraordinary writ of mandamus.1 In any…