> Sure, but what prevents us from calling unanimity a historical accident as well? On the fourth page of Gorsuch's opinion he summarizes the basic argument: "W

> Sure, but what prevents us from calling unanimity a historical accident as well? On the fourth page of Gorsuch's opinion he summarizes the basic argument: "Wherever we might look to determine what the term 'trial by an impartial jury trial' meant at the time of the Sixth Amendment's adoption--whether it’s the common law, state practices in the founding era, or opinions and treatises written soon afterward--the answer is unmistakable. A jury must reach a unanimous verdict in order to convict." I think your observation is correct--the logic of Williams v. Florida contradicts the logic of this new opinion. Before Williams v. Florida, and as that opinion honestly summarizes, 12 members was always required, solely based on historical practice. So Williams opposed the fundamental reasoning of historical precedent and overturned actual Supreme Court precedent; it looked to the fundamental purpose of the jury trial and whether the size was consistent with that purpose. For Ramos (or at least Gorsuch), consistent historical practice is the most important and even dispositive evidence of how a jury verdict must be composed, regardless of whether it was accidental rather than deliberate, and regardless of whether a non-unanimous verdict achieves the purpose; it seems to return to the pre-Williams reasoning. To the extent purpose mattered, it was the purpose of the deviations from unanimity, and that purpose was preserving white supremacy.