Cite as: 526 U. S. 687 (1999)
Opinion of Scalia, J.
the defendant was a trustee who could, instead, have been sued for an equitable accounting.
III
To say that respondents had the right to a jury trial on their § 1983 claim is not to say that they were entitled to have the jury decide every issue. The precise scope of the jury's function is the second Seventh Amendment issue before us here—and there again, as we stated in Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U. S. 370, 377 (1996), history is our guide. I agree with the Court's methodology, see ante, at 718-719, 720, which, in the absence of a precise historical analogue, recognizes the historical preference for juries to make primarily factual determinations and for judges to resolve legal questions. See Baltimore & Carolina Line, Inc. v. Redman, 295 U. S. 654, 657 (1935). That fact-law dichotomy is routinely applied by the lower courts in deciding § 1983 cases. For instance, in cases alleging retaliatory discharge of a public employee in violation of the First Amendment, judges determine whether the speech that motivated the termination was constitutionally protected speech, while juries find whether the discharge was caused by that speech. See, e. g., Horstkoetter v. Department of Public Safety, 159 F. 3d 1265, 1271 (CA10 1998). And in cases asserting municipal liability for harm caused by unconstitutional policies, judges determine whether the alleged policies were unconstitutional, while juries find whether the policies in fact existed and whether they harmed the plaintiff. See, e. g., Myers v. County of Orange, 157 F. 3d 66, 74-76 (CA2 1998), cert. denied, 525 U. S. 1146 (1999).
In the present case, the question of liability for a Takings Clause violation was given to the jury to determine by answering two questions: (1) whether respondents were deprived of "all economically viable use" of their property, and (2) whether petitioner's 1986 rejection of respondents' building plans "substantially advance[d] [a] legitimate public in-
731
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