Jarkesy 7th Amendment decision changes nothing for non-governmental civil disputes

The Supreme Court’s Jarkesy decision held that when the SEC seeks civil penalties against a defendant for securities fraud, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial.  This was a based on a straight-forward application of Granfinanciera, S. A. v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33 (1989) and Tull v. United States, 481 U.S. 412 (1987).  Though civil litigants will likely cite the case for the Chief Justice’s eloquence in summarizing the history and importance of the Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial, the Court said nothing of what its decision means for civil cases not brought by the Government.  The decision will undoubtedly be a sea change for Government attorneys enforcing civil penalty schemes against regulated parties (think FTC, CFTF, FDA, etc.).  But for the rest of us the decision gives lower courts no more or less room to deprive litigants of their jury trial rights (or overturn the jury’s decision if a court disagrees with it).