Melancon v. McKeithen

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

The plaintiffs in these consolidated cases (See Appendix A) invite this Court to hold that the Seventh Amendment of the United States Constitution1 applies to civil actions in Louisiana courts through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We decline the invitation. The Supreme Court has never adopted the principle that the Due Process Clause o,f the Fourteenth Amendment totally “incorporates” all the specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights. Assuming that the term “selective incorporation” properly describes the process by which now a specific guarantee in…