Was Petitioner entitled by the Incorporation of the Seventh Amendment's Jury Trial Clause into the Fourteenth Amendment to Trial By Jury in a State Civil Recommitment Proceeding in which he was alleged to remain a 'Sexually Violent Predator'?

QUESTION PRESENTED The common law of England, as transplanted to Virginia and the government of the United States, provided for trial by jury to decide whether a man should be committed to a mental institutution. This Court has ruled that a variation of mental commitment known in several states as a “sexually violent predator” commitment proceeding can be constitutional under certain circumstances. Petitioner has been previously committed under such a statute, which however provided for a periodic redetermination that Petitioner remains a “sexually violent predator”. Almost all of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment and applied to the states, and Petitioner respectfully asks this Court to rule that the Jury Trial Clause of the Seventh Amendment should be so incorporated as to involuntary commitment proceedings such as the “sexually violent predator” laws. The question presented is: Was Petitioner entitled by the Incorporation of the Seventh Amendment’s Jury Trial Clause into the Fourteenth Amendment to Trial By Jury in a State Civil Recommitment Proceeding in which he was alleged to remain a “Sexually Violent Predator?” Al