Equity’s jury-free flexibilities powered major late-nineteenth century judicial interventions.

Evidence

In fact, many striking developments, between 1850 and 1900, depended on creative use of tools of equity. Courts put bankrupt railroads into (equity) receivership and virtually ran them; they forged out of the injunction a terrible sword to use in industrial disputes. Injunction and receivership were both old tricks of equity, rapidly and vigorously reshaped. Equity, free from the whims of a jury, was made to order for a judge with a taste for power. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2310

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ch20’s account of America’s adversarial jury reverence — the jury-less equity channel was the workaround judges used when jury power constrained common law. — connects to: Historical law-equity classification still determines the right to a jury trial today — Lawrence M. Friedman and Grant M. Hayden, American Law: An Introduction, 356; Late-nineteenth-century courts functioned as a shield protecting established interests — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3602; Nineteenth-century courts shifted tort law toward negligence to favor industrial growth — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3405 (+1 more)
• ADDENDUM: Equity tools (receivership) paralleling how institutions reroute around constitutions — loose tie to ch52’s evasions of single-subject clauses.

Broader Connections

• Late-nineteenth-century courts functioned as a shield protecting established interests #exemplifies (0.82) — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3602
• Nineteenth-century courts shifted tort law toward negligence to favor industrial growth #exemplifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3405