I did not intend to distract you with the topic.

As for its importance, virtually the whole of the US Constitution is meant to create the necessary evil of a government and then hamstring it with as many protections as they could get that while it would work, it would not be able to establish a tyranny. One part of that was ensuring the right to trial by jury - which protected against governments because juries could choose to ignore unfair laws. (And their rulings of "Not Guilty!" cannot be readily overturned by a judge.)

The history of the US since has shown the tendancy of the government to seek to aquire the powers that the Constitution tried to block. Whether it does so by appointing judges who interpret the Commerce Clause very generously (thanks FDR), or by suing your goods to get around protections against search and seizure, or by keeping juries from knowing about the right to jury nullification, there is ever-present pressure to achieve what the Constitution is intended to block.

Whether or not this is a good thing is a big can of worms. I don't mean to raise that. But that it has happened is a simple fact. Interest groups generally try to increase their influence, and the government has proved to be no exception to this rule.

Cheers,
Ben