Amicus Brief: Sligo Creek Center v. Department of Health and Human Services

In 2024, the Supreme Court issued an important decision in SEC v. Jarkesy (in which MI filed a brief), holding that the Seventh Amendment's guarantee of the right to trial by jury applies to adjudications in front of agencies. But the decision left many open questions about when a jury trial is required. Many government agencies impose penalties for a variety of reasons, such as fining companies for creating safety hazards, and in such cases jury trials are not generally guaranteed.

The Sligo Creek Center nursing home was fined $1.45 million after tuberculosis surfaced among its residents. The Department of Health and Human Services acted as investigator, prosecutor, judge, and collector, and no jury ever reviewed the case. Sligo Creek challenged the imposition of the fine without a jury trial. The Fourth Circuit disagreed, applying the so-called "public rights" exception to the Seventh Amendment. The public rights exception is extremely difficult to define, but it limits the right to a jury trial in certain situations where Congress has created "public rights" and a jury trial would be "incompatible."

Now on petition for Supreme Court review, the Manhattan Institute has filed a brief urging the Court to take the case. We argue that the Fourth Circuit was wrong that claims arising from spreading an infectious disease were "unknown at common law." In 1778, Virginia fined smallpox patients who exposed others and doctors who failed to post warnings, and it sent those fines to a court with a jury. English courts also prosecuted people who spread contagion as a public nuisance. The Court's 1977 decision in Atlas Roofing articulated a version of the public rights exception that sits at odds with Jarkesy. We argue the Court should consider overruling it, or, at a minimum, it should hold the case pending the decision in Department of Labor v. Sun Valley Orchards, which deals with similar issues.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

Trevor Burrus is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

With thanks to associate Maya El-Sharif