Cite as: 526 U. S. 687 (1999)
Opinion of Souter, J.
Justice Souter, with whom Justice OTMConnor, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
A federal court commits error by submitting an issue to a jury over objection, unless the party seeking the jury determination has a right to a jury trial on the issue. Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 39(a)(2). In this action under Rev. Stat. § 1979, 42 U. S. C. § 1983, the city unsuccessfully objected to submitting respondents' regulatory takings (or inverse condemnation) claim to a jury. Respondents had no right to a jury trial either by statute or under the Constitution; the District Court thus erred in submitting their claim to a jury. In holding to the contrary, that such a right does exist under the Seventh Amendment, the Court misconceives a takings claim under § 1983 and draws a false analogy between such a claim and a tort action. I respectfully dissent from this error.
I
I see eye to eye with the Court on some of the preliminary issues. I agree in rejecting extension of "rough proportionality" as a standard for reviewing land-use regulations generally and so join Parts I and II of the majority opinion. I also join the Court in thinking the statutory language "an action at law" insufficient to provide a jury right under 42 U. S. C. § 1983, ante, at 707-708, with the consequence that Markman v. Westview Instruments, Inc., 517 U. S. 370 (1996), must provide the appropriate questions in passing on the issue of a constitutional guarantee of jury trial: " 'whether we are dealing with a cause of action that either was tried at law at the time of the founding or is at least analogous to one that was' "; and, if so, " 'whether the particular trial decision must fall to the jury in order to preserve the substance of the common-law right as it existed in 1791.' " Ante, at 708 (quoting Markman, supra, at 376). The Court soundly concedes that at the adoption of the Seventh Amendment there was no action like the modern in-
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