"In our opinion the right to be exempt from prosecution for an infamous crime, except upon a presentment by a grand jury, is of the same nature as the right to a trial by a petit jury of the number fixed by the common law. If the state have the power to abolish the grand jury and the consequent proceeding by indictment, the same course of reasoning which establishes that right will and does establish the right to alter the number of the petit jury from that provided by the common law. Many cases upon the subject since the Hurtado Case was decided are to be found gathered in Hodgson v. Vermont, 168 U.S. 262 , 42 L. ed. 461, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 80; Holden v. Hardy, 169 U.S. 366, 384 , 42 S. L. ed. 780, 788, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 383; Brown v. New Jersey, 175 U.S. 172 , 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 77, 44 L. ed. --; Bolln v. Nebraska, 176 U.S. 83 , 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 287, 44 L. ed. --". "Trial by jury has never been affirmed to be a necessary requisite of due process of law."
U.S. Supreme Court, MAXWELL v. DOW, 176 U.S. 581 (1900)