The United States Supreme Court has held that the constitutional right to a jury trial in criminal prosecutions extends only to the prosecution of serious crimes, as opposed to petty offenses.

Except in that class or grade of offences called petty offences, which, according to the common law, may be proceeded against summarily in any tribunal legally constituted for that purpose, the guarantee of an impartial jury to the accused in a criminal prosecution, conducted either in the name, or by or under the authority of, the United States, secures to him the right to …

—"it is beyond doubt, at the present day, that the provisions of the Constitution of the United States securing the right of trial by jury, whether in civil or in criminal cases, are applicable to the District of Columbia."

—the United States Supreme Court declared that the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial "is not to be construed as relating only to felonies, or offenses punishable in the penitentiary. It embraces, as well, some classes of misdemeanors, the punishment of which involves or may involve the deprivation of the liberty of the citizen."

Although the District of Columbia is not regarded as a state for many purposes, it is clear that it is a part of the United States so as to afford the residents certain rights and privileges, such as trial by jury

Of course if the maximum punishment for criminal contempt were sufficiently limited that offense might no longer fall within the category of'crimes'; instead it might then be regarded, in the light of our previous decisions, as a'petty'or'minor'offense for which the defendant would not necessarily be entitled to trial by jury.

It has long been settled that "there is a category of petty crimes or offenses which is not subject to the Sixth Amendment jury trial provision."

—the police court had no jurisdiction to try offenses as to which there was a constitutional right to jury trial.

In Callan, the Court noted that the Constitution's jury trial provisions are "to be interpreted in the light of the principles which, at common law, determined whether the accused, in a given class of cases, was entitled to be tried by a jury."

This has never been treated as an infraction of the constitution, though technically a person may in this way be deprived of his liberty without the intervention of a jury.