SEC v. Sargent ( 2023 )


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  •           United States Court of Appeals
    For the First Circuit
    No. 22-1596
    U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION,
    Plaintiff, Appellant,
    v.
    HENRY B. SARGENT,
    Defendant, Appellee,
    FREDERICK M. MINTZ; ALAN P. FRAADE; JOSEPH J. TOMASEK; PATRICK
    GIORDANO,
    Defendants.
    APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
    [Hon. Richard G. Stearns, U.S. District Judge]
    Before
    Barron, Chief Judge,
    Lynch and Gelpí, Circuit Judges.
    Paul G. Alvarez, Senior Appellate Counsel, with whom Dan
    M. Berkovitz, General Counsel, and Michael A. Conley, Solicitor,
    were on brief, for appellant.
    Peter R. Ginsberg, with whom Christopher R. Neff and
    Moskowitz & Book LLP were on brief, for appellee.
    April 18, 2023
    BARRON, Chief Judge.    A party to a civil jury trial has
    the right under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 48(c) to request
    that the district court individually poll each juror after the
    jury has returned a verdict to confirm that each juror agrees with
    the verdict that was announced.     The question presented in this
    interlocutory appeal is whether a party that has been denied that
    right is automatically entitled to a new trial, even when the jury
    has been polled collectively, or whether -- given that Federal
    Rule of Civil Procedure 61 instructs that we "must disregard all
    errors . . . that do not affect any party's substantial rights"
    -- that party must show prejudice in the specific case at hand to
    be entitled to that remedy.
    We have not had occasion to address this question before.
    But, we have long held that denial of the right under Federal Rule
    of Criminal Procedure 31(d) to poll each juror individually in a
    criminal case is per se reversible error, see Miranda v. United
    States, 
    255 F.2d 9
    , 18 (1st Cir. 1958); Ira Green, Inc. v. Mil.
    Sales & Serv. Co., 
    775 F.3d 12
    , 25 (1st Cir. 2014), even though
    Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(a) sets forth an analogue to
    Civil Rule 61, see Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(a) ("Any error . . . that
    does not affect substantial rights must be disregarded.").       In
    light of the arguments presented, and given that we do not write
    on a clean state but are instead bound by circuit precedents that
    we have no occasion to consider anew here, we conclude that our
    - 2 -
    circuit   law   points   us   to   interpreting   Civil   Rule   48(c)   no
    differently from our interpretation of Criminal Rule 31(d).              We
    therefore affirm the interlocutory order of the District Court.
    I.
    A.
    In June 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission
    ("SEC") filed this civil enforcement action against Henry B.
    Sargent in the United States District Court for the District of
    Massachusetts.     The action alleges that Sargent engaged in a
    "fraudulent and deceptive scheme to disguise public stock sales by
    corporate affiliates that should have been registered with the
    [SEC]" under federal securities law.
    A ten-day trial before Judge William G. Young ensued in
    the District of Massachusetts.            The jury returned a unanimous
    verdict against Sargent.
    The court clerk first recorded the verdict by reading
    aloud each of the questions on the verdict form along with each of
    the jurors' corresponding responses.          The clerk then polled the
    jury collectively by asking:
    CLERK: So say you Madam Forelady, is that your
    verdict?
    FOREPERSON: Yes.
    CLERK: So say you members of the jury?
    JURY: (In unison.) Yes.
    - 3 -
    Judge Young then thanked the jurors for their service
    and directed them to retire to the room where they had deliberated.
    Before the jury left the courtroom, Sargent's counsel asked: "Can
    we poll the jury?"     Judge Young responded: "Denied.      They may be
    excused."
    After the jury retired to the deliberation room, Judge
    Young remained on the bench to discuss several matters with the
    parties.    He then joined the jurors in that room.
    The next day, Sargent informed the SEC that he believed
    Judge Young had committed reversible error by denying his request
    to poll the jury, because he had been thereby denied his right to
    poll each of the jurors individually.       The SEC immediately filed
    an emergency motion to recall the jurors so that they might be
    polled individually, which Judge Young denied.      The following day,
    Sargent moved for a new trial.1
    At   a   hearing   regarding   the   motion,   Judge   Young
    acknowledged that his denial of Sargent's request was in clear
    The SEC notes that Sargent "did not invoke [Civil] Rule
    1
    48(c)" when he first requested that the jury be polled, did not
    immediately object that the court's denial of his request violated
    Civil Rule 48(c), and only invoked Civil Rule 48(c) before the
    court for the first time in his motion for a new trial. But the
    SEC does not argue on appeal that Sargent's invocation of Civil
    Rule 48(c) was for that reason untimely, and the District Court
    below concluded that it was not. We therefore consider any such
    argument waived.    See United States v. Zannino, 
    895 F.2d 1
    , 17
    (1st Cir. 1990) ("[I]ssues adverted to in a perfunctory manner,
    unaccompanied by some effort at developed argumentation, are
    deemed waived.").
    - 4 -
    violation of Civil Rule 48(c).        Judge Young explained that he
    "simply did not know the rule" because it had been adopted in 2009
    and since then no party in a civil case had requested that he poll
    each of the jurors individually. He then partially recused himself
    for the determination of whether that error automatically entitled
    Sargent to a new trial or whether it should first be assessed for
    harmlessness.
    B.
    The issue was randomly assigned to Judge Richard G.
    Stearns.   After receiving additional briefing from the parties, he
    ruled that a violation of the right to poll each of the jurors
    individually under Civil Rule 48(c) is per se reversible and that
    Sargent was therefore entitled to a new trial.
    Judge Stearns based this conclusion chiefly upon our
    dicta in Ira Green that because "[t]he criminal and civil rules on
    jury polling are now virtually identical[,] . . . [c]ommon sense
    suggests that [they] should be interpreted in pari passu."      
    775 F.3d at 25
    .     Judge Stearns also relied on the Seventh Circuit's
    statements in an earlier case that "there is little reason to
    distinguish" between the civil and criminal jury polling rules,
    and that "[t]here is no doubt that a district court's refusal, or
    even neglect, to conduct a jury poll upon a timely request is
    ground for a new trial."    Verser v. Barfield, 
    741 F.3d 734
    , 738
    (7th Cir. 2013).
    - 5 -
    Although Judge Stearns termed our dicta in Ira Green a
    "blaze marker" for how we might rule on the question, he did
    acknowledge that decision had also called the issue "open to
    legitimate question." Ira Green, 
    775 F.3d at
    24–25. Judge Stearns
    also noted Ira Green's observation that "[m]ore than one state
    court, interpreting similar parallel mandatory jury-polling rules,
    has concluded that a violation of the right to a jury poll
    engenders automatic reversal in criminal cases but not in civil
    cases."   
    Id.
     at 25 (citing Wiseman v. Armstrong, 
    989 A.2d 1027
    ,
    1040–41 (Conn. 2010)).
    Judge   Stearns       therefore   sua    sponte   certified     the
    question for immediate interlocutory appeal, which we granted.
    The SEC then filed this timely appeal.
    II.
    The   issue    that    we   address     is   whether,   under   our
    precedent, the District Court's denial here of the right to poll
    each juror individually under Civil Rule 48(c), after the jury had
    been collectively polled, was per se reversible error.2           Our review
    is de novo.   See Langlois v. Abington Hous. Auth., 
    207 F.3d 43
    , 47
    (1st Cir. 2000). We begin by explaining that, under our precedent,
    2 We note that, were we to agree with the SEC that
    harmlessness review applies, Sargent's motion for a new trial would
    not necessarily fail. Rather, Sargent would have the opportunity
    to show that the error prejudiced him in a way that warrants a new
    trial.
    - 6 -
    a district court's denial of the right to poll each of the jurors
    individually    under   Criminal    Rule   31(d)   constitutes    per    se
    reversible error. We then explain why we conclude that our circuit
    precedent leads us to an affirmance.
    A.
    The key precedent with respect to Criminal Rule 31(d) is
    Miranda, which we decided in 1958.         At that time, Criminal Rule
    31(d) provided:
    Poll of Jury. When a verdict is returned and
    before it is recorded the jury shall be polled
    at the request of any party or upon the court's
    own motion.    If upon the poll there is not
    unanimous concurrence, the jury may be
    directed to retire for further deliberations
    or may be discharged.
    Miranda, 
    255 F.2d at 17
    .
    In Miranda, after the jury had returned a guilty verdict
    against   the   defendant,   the   district   court   polled     the    jury
    collectively and    ordered that the verdict be recorded.                
    Id.
    Counsel for the criminal defendant then requested that each of the
    jurors be polled individually, but the district court denied the
    request on the ground that the verdict had already been recorded.
    
    Id.
     at 17–18.     The defendant then appealed, seeking to have his
    criminal conviction vacated on a number of grounds.        One of those
    grounds was that the district court had "erred" in denying the
    request to poll each of the jurors individually and that the error
    was "reversible."    
    Id. at 17
    .
    - 7 -
    In assessing that contention, we explained that "[t]he
    right of the defendant to have the jury polled . . . is of ancient
    origin and of basic importance," and that this was the right "thus
    recognized and established by [Criminal] Rule 31(d)."   
    Id.
     (citing
    Humphries v. District of Columbia, 
    174 U.S. 190
    , 194 (1899)).     We
    added that the "object" of individual polling is "to give each
    juror an opportunity . . . to declare in open court his assent to
    the verdict," so that "the court and the parties [can] ascertain
    with certainty that a unanimous verdict has in fact been reached
    and that no juror has been coerced or induced to agree to a verdict
    to which he has not fully assented."     
    Id.
    Having identified the right that the rule secured, which
    the government had "concede[d]," 
    id.,
     we then addressed whether
    that right had been denied. We concluded that it had. We explained
    that the defendant "was denied a reasonable opportunity to have
    the jury polled," and that "[i]t was not enough that the trial
    judge had [collectively polled] the jurors."    Id. at 18.   That was
    so, we explained, because "the right to poll the jury is the right
    to require each juror individually to state publicly his assent to
    or dissent from the returned verdict."    Id.
    With this analysis in place, we then turned to the
    question of remedy.   We explained in that regard that there was no
    need to address the defendant's other grounds for seeking a new
    trial.   The reason that we gave was that "the judgment must be
    - 8 -
    reversed and a new trial ordered because of the denial of the
    defendant's right to poll the jury."          Id.
    In so concluding, we did not undertake any inquiry into
    whether the denial of the right could be deemed harmless.                 And,
    that was so even though Criminal Rule 52(a), entitled "Harmless
    Error," was on the books at the time and provided that "[a]ny error
    .   .   .   which   does   not    affect   substantial   rights   shall    be
    disregarded."       Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(a), reprinted in 18 U.S.C.A.
    app. at 3439 (1958).
    In the wake of Miranda, Criminal Rule 31(d) has been
    amended to make manifest what Miranda understood to be already
    there: that the right the rule secured was a right to poll each of
    the jurors individually following a verdict, and not simply to
    poll the jury collectively.          See Fed. R. Crim. P. 31(d) advisory
    committee's note to 1998 amendment.          Moreover, our circuit has not
    questioned our conclusion in Miranda that a denial of that right
    in a criminal case, when "seasonably exercised," Miranda, 
    255 F.2d at 17
    , requires a new trial without any consideration of whether
    the error was harmless.          On the contrary, only a few years ago in
    Ira Green, we declared that "the prevailing rule" both in our
    circuit and others under Criminal Rule 31(d) is that "a failure to
    poll the jury after a timely request constitutes per se reversible
    error."     
    775 F.3d at 25
     (emphasis added) (first citing United
    States v. F.J. Vollmer & Co., 
    1 F.3d 1511
    , 1522 (7th Cir. 1993);
    - 9 -
    then citing Virgin Islands v. Hercules, 
    875 F.2d 414
    , 419 (3d Cir.
    1989); and then citing Miranda, 
    255 F.2d at 18
    ).          Nor does the SEC
    take issue with this assessment of the state of our precedent as
    it stood as of the time of Ira Green.3
    To be sure, under the "law of the circuit," we as a panel
    are not bound by     our prior circuit          precedent if "subsequent
    controlling authority" -- whether a decision of the United States
    Supreme Court, an en banc decision of our court, or a statute --
    has directly "contradicted" it.           United States v. Barbosa, 
    896 F.3d 60
    , 74 (1st Cir. 2018).      But, the SEC has chosen not to argue
    that this precedent must be rethought given intervening Supreme
    Court   caselaw.   Rather,   it    does    no   more   than   gesture   at   a
    suggestion that the Supreme Court's subsequent precedent does
    contradict our precedent insofar as that precedent holds that a
    violation of   Criminal   Rule 31(d)'s right to poll each juror
    individually is per se reversible error.
    The government does so by pointing to Rivera v. Illinois,
    
    556 U.S. 148
     (2009), which holds that the denial of the right to
    exercise peremptory challenges is not per se reversible error but
    3To the extent that, in its reply brief, the SEC attempts
    to recharacterize the "prevailing rule" as requiring per se
    reversal only where "the jury was not polled at all -- either
    individually or collectively," that argument, which was not
    presented in the SEC's opening brief, is waived. See United States
    v. Casey, 
    825 F.3d 1
    , 12 (1st Cir. 2016).
    - 10 -
    rather must be assessed for harmlessness.             That mere gesturing is
    insufficient to lead us to reconsider Miranda.
    The    SEC   acknowledges     that    the    Supreme       Court     has
    recognized that some errors in the criminal context do "defy
    analysis by 'harmless-error' standards," Arizona v. Fulminante,
    
    499 U.S. 279
    , 309 (1991) -- a class of errors that the Court has
    come to refer to as "structural errors," Weaver v. Massachusetts,
    
    137 S. Ct. 1899
    , 1907–08 (2017).          And, in the end, the SEC makes
    no argument that the error identified in Miranda is not of that
    "structural" kind, such that, in light of Rivera, our finding of
    per se reversible error in Miranda for a denial of the right that
    Criminal Rule 31(d) secures is no longer good law.
    In fact, at oral argument, the SEC made clear that it
    was, for the purposes of this case, accepting as good law Miranda's
    treatment   of     the   denial    of   the   right     to    poll     each    juror
    individually under Criminal Rule 31(d) as per se reversible error,
    and separately arguing that we must nonetheless treat the violation
    of Civil Rule 48(c) that is at issue here differently.                            We
    therefore   deem    waived   any    argument     that    we    should     overturn
    Miranda's   "per    se   reversible"     holding,     see     United    States    v.
    Zannino, 
    895 F.2d 1
    , 17 (1st Cir. 1990), and proceed to consider
    only the SEC's argument in this appeal -- that, notwithstanding
    Miranda, a district court's denial of Civil Rule 48(c)'s right to
    poll each juror individually must be assessed for harmlessness.
    - 11 -
    B.
    The SEC emphasizes that the Supreme Court has never found
    a trial error in a civil case to be "structural."    See Al Haramain
    Islamic Found., Inc. v. U.S. Dep't of Treasury, 
    686 F.3d 965
    , 988
    (9th Cir. 2012).   It also contends that we have treated the civil
    jury-polling right as non-constitutional, see Ira Green, 
    775 F.3d at 25
    , and that, even in the criminal context, the Court has never
    found a violation of a non-constitutional right to be "structural,"
    while it has recognized that even "[m]ost constitutional errors"
    are not.   Fulminante, 
    499 U.S. at 306
    .    Thus, the SEC contends,
    the fact that Civil Rule 48(c) errors result in the denial of a
    non-constitutional right in a civil context provides strong reason
    to conclude that they cannot be per se reversible.
    The SEC further adds that in a civil case the burden is
    on the party claiming an error to show that the error was not
    harmless, while in a criminal case the burden is on the government
    to show that it was, even when the error results in the denial of
    a non-constitutional right.     See Shinseki v. Sanders, 
    556 U.S. 396
    , 410–11 (2009) (citing Palmer v. Hoffman, 
    318 U.S. 109
    , 116
    (1943)).   And, the SEC also points to the inherent differences
    between criminal and civil cases in terms of the higher stakes and
    the correspondingly higher burden of proof in the former.       See
    Kotteakos v. United States, 
    328 U.S. 750
    , 762 (1946).   In so doing,
    - 12 -
    the SEC challenges as mistaken our assumption in Ira Green that
    the two contexts should receive the same treatment.
    In assessing the force of these contentions, however, we
    must keep in mind the state of our own precedent, as well as the
    text of the rules implicated in this case.        And, we conclude that,
    in light of our precedent, we must reject the SEC's position, at
    least given the arguments that it has made to us as to why the
    error at issue here is not per se reversible.
    1.
    We begin with the text of each of the jury-polling rules
    at issue: Criminal Rule 31(d) and Civil Rule 48(c).            As we noted
    in Ira Green, the rules are, textually, "virtually identical."
    
    775 F.3d at 25
    .       After all, Civil Rule 48(c) was "drawn from
    Criminal Rule 31(d)" with only "minor revisions to reflect Civil
    Rules   Style   and   the   parties'    opportunity   to   stipulate   to   a
    nonunanimous verdict."       Fed. R. Civ. P. 48(c) advisory committee's
    note to 2009 amendment.       In fact, the advisory committee notes to
    Criminal Rule 31(d), in calling the rule "a restatement of existing
    law and practice," cited two cases for support, one of which was
    a federal civil case.       Fed. R. Crim. P. 31(d) advisory committee's
    note to 1944 adoption (first citing Mackett v. United States, 
    90 F.2d 462
    , 465 (7th Cir. 1937); and then citing Bruce v. Chestnut
    Farms-Chevy Chase Dairy, 
    126 F.2d 224
     (D.C. Cir. 1942)).          Nor does
    - 13 -
    the SEC point to any textual difference between the two rules as
    a basis for its position.
    We turn, then, to the text of the two harmless error
    rules, Criminal Rule 52(a) and Civil Rule 61.           The SEC places
    significant emphasis on the portion of the text of Civil Rule 61
    that provides that "the court must disregard all errors and defects
    that do not affect any party's substantial rights."         Fed. R. Civ.
    P.   61   (emphases   added).   The   SEC   argues   that   because   this
    "categorical mandate does not provide an exception for [Civil]
    Rule 48(c) errors," the text of Civil Rule 61 itself precludes
    treating such errors as per se reversible.
    However, in making this argument, the SEC overlooks the
    fact that Criminal Rule 52(a), in a similarly categorical mandate,
    provides that "[a]ny error . . . that does not affect substantial
    rights must be disregarded."      Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(a) (emphases
    added).    Similarly, the harmless error statute -- which applies to
    both criminal and civil cases -- states that in "any appeal"
    regarding "any case," the court "shall give judgment after an
    examination of the record without regard to errors or defects which
    do not affect the substantial rights of the parties."          
    28 U.S.C. § 2111
     (emphases added).
    So, it is hard to see how the text of Civil Rule 61
    that the SEC zeroes in on, standing alone, could provide a basis
    for its argument based on text.       The SEC also acknowledges that
    - 14 -
    the Supreme Court has recognized that some errors it has recognized
    as structural errors "defy" harmless error review and are therefore
    per se reversible.   Fulminante, 
    499 U.S. at 309
    .
    True, Civil Rule 61 and Criminal Rule 52(a) exhibit more
    textual variation than the two jury-polling rules.        But, the SEC
    has not identified how any of the differences between the two rules
    (such as using "any error" instead of "all errors") are material
    rather than stylistic.
    2.
    a.
    Perhaps the SEC's strongest argument for its position is
    "the historic difference between how courts review errors in
    criminal and civil cases."     In that regard, it notes the higher
    stakes and correspondingly higher burden of proof in criminal
    cases, as well as the fact that, in civil cases, the burden is on
    the party complaining of error to show that the error was not
    harmless, whereas the burden is reversed in criminal cases.
    This argument could be read as supporting the much
    broader notion that no federal civil trial error can be per se
    reversible, even though federal criminal trial errors can be. And,
    indeed, in line with that logic, the SEC also attempts to argue
    that no civil trial errors are per se reversible.
    This   argument,   however,   runs   headlong   into   another
    aspect of our own precedent, in which we treated the different
    - 15 -
    non-constitutional   issue   of   a   district   court's   permitting
    alternate jurors to participate in jury deliberations in a civil
    trial as per se reversible error.4      See Cabral v. Sullivan, 
    961 F.2d 998
    , 1003 (1st Cir. 1992).   In arriving at that conclusion in
    Cabral, moreover, we relied on cases involving Civil Rule 47(b)'s
    criminal analogue, Criminal Rule 24(c). And, based on those cases,
    we explained that, because the two rules "literally read the same,"
    we "[did] not believe the drafters meant for any variations in the
    interpretation of the[] two rules."     
    Id.
     at 1001 n.3.
    Cabral is therefore in tension with the SEC's argument
    that this non-constitutional civil trial error cannot be per se
    reversible.   Cabral also supports Ira Green's observation that
    "[c]ommon sense suggests" that analogous civil and criminal rules
    "should be interpreted in pari passu" with regard to whether
    violations of those rules should be assessed for harmlessness.
    Ira Green, 
    775 F.3d at 25
    .
    The SEC does argue in its reply brief that Cabral is no
    longer good law due to the Supreme Court's decision in United
    States v. Olano, 
    507 U.S. 725
     (1993).    There, the Court held that
    a district court's permitting alternate jurors to sit in on jury
    deliberations did not warrant a new trial because it did not affect
    4  Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 47(b) previously
    provided that "[a]n alternate juror who does not replace a regular
    juror shall be discharged after the jury retires to consider its
    verdict." Cabral v. Sullivan, 
    961 F.2d 998
    , 1001 (1st Cir. 1992).
    - 16 -
    the substantial rights of the defendant, even though it violated
    Criminal Rule 24(c).       Id. at 739-41.
    Our decision in United States v. Houlihan, 
    92 F.3d 1271
    (1st Cir. 1996), again is in tension with the SEC's view.                 Houlihan
    noted that the alternate jurors in Cabral actually participated in
    the deliberations, while in Olano they were instructed not to
    participate.       See    
    id.
       at    1288    n.16.      Indeed,   Cabral    itself
    emphasized     that      the    alternates         had   participated       in   the
    deliberations, while distinguishing earlier precedents in which
    the   alternates    had   sat    in   on     the   deliberations    but   had    not
    participated.      Cabral, 
    961 F.2d at
    1001 nn.4–5; see also Manning
    v. Huffman, 
    269 F.3d 720
    , 725–26 (6th Cir. 2001); United States v.
    Ottersburg, 
    76 F.3d 137
    , 140 (7th Cir. 1996); United States v.
    Aguilar, 
    743 F.3d 1144
    , 1149–50 (8th Cir. 2014).               Meanwhile, Olano
    emphasized the lack of evidence in that case "that the alternate
    jurors . . . participated in the jury's deliberations" either
    "verbally or through 'body language.'"                
    507 U.S. at 739
    .
    Indeed, the SEC itself turns out in the end to be a less
    stout defender of the contention that a civil trial error cannot
    be per se reversible.           At oral argument, it conceded that some
    errors that the Supreme Court has recognized as structural in the
    criminal context -- such as the right to an impartial judge,
    Fulminante, 
    499 U.S. at
    309 (citing Tumey v. Ohio, 
    273 U.S. 510
    ,
    535 (1927)) -- might very well be per se reversible in the civil
    - 17 -
    context.   Cf. Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., 
    556 U.S. 868
    , 886-
    87 (2009) (reversing because a state justice's failure to recuse
    when a party had contributed $3 million to the justice's campaign
    created    a   "probability       of     actual       bias   ris[ing]    to   an
    unconstitutional     level"   under      the    Due   Process   Clause   of   the
    Fourteenth Amendment); 
    id. at 898
     (Roberts, C.J., dissenting)
    (questioning whether judge's erroneous failure to recuse should be
    assessed for harmlessness).        Thus, given that the SEC ultimately
    stops short of arguing that civil trial errors categorically cannot
    be per se reversible, and given that both we and other circuits
    currently recognize some civil trial errors as per se reversible,
    we fail to see how the SEC's arguments in this regard justify
    singling     out   jury-polling        errors    as    meriting   differential
    treatment in the criminal and civil contexts.
    All that said, the SEC is right that, as we noted in Ira
    Green, several state courts treat jury-polling errors as per se
    reversible in the criminal context but not in the civil context.
    Ira Green, 
    775 F.3d at
    25 (citing Wiseman, 989 A.2d at 1038 & n.18
    (collecting cases)).      In Wiseman, for example, the Connecticut
    Supreme Court acknowledged its precedent treating jury-polling
    errors as per se reversible in the criminal context.               989 A.2d at
    1040 (citing State v. Pare, 
    755 A.2d 180
    , 194–96 (Conn. 2000)).
    But, state court decisions are not a basis to depart from our
    precedent.     For the reasons we have explained, when we consider
    - 18 -
    the text of each of the relevant federal rules in light of Miranda
    and Ira Green, as well as Cabral and Houlihan, we see no basis for
    drawing the distinction that some state courts have drawn in
    interpreting their own state law rules.
    b.
    The SEC does make one additional argument for why Civil
    Rule 48(c) errors must be assessed for harmlessness.         It proceeds
    as follows: Because courts review for harmlessness the denial of
    the right to a civil jury trial under the Seventh Amendment to the
    United States Constitution, courts must a fortiori also review for
    harmlessness   any   jury-related    errors    within   a   jury   trial,
    including the failure to poll each of the jurors individually upon
    a party's request.
    The SEC is right that both we and other circuits have
    held that a court's denial of the Seventh Amendment right to a
    civil jury trial is subject to harmless error analysis.               See
    Frappier v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 
    750 F.3d 91
    , 98 (1st
    Cir. 2014); see also SEC v. Jensen, 
    835 F.3d 1100
    , 1108–11 (9th
    Cir. 2016); 9 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Fed. Prac.
    & Proc. § 2322 (4th ed. 2022).      But, harmlessness review in these
    cases takes an unusual, narrow form: assessing whether the case
    "[]ever would have reached the jury."         9 Wright & Miller, supra,
    § 2322.   In other words, denials of the right to a jury trial are
    harmless only in the "rare instances" in which the judge would
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    have been obliged to grant judgment as a matter of law before the
    case was even submitted to the jury.     Id.; see also Frappier, 
    750 F.3d at 98
     (assessing if evidence met standard for directed
    verdict). Otherwise, the error will be "presumed harmful" if there
    remain any questions that would have been left for the jury to
    decide, even if the evidence is otherwise overwhelming.     9 Wright
    & Miller, supra, § 2322.
    The SEC has never, either in the District Court or on
    appeal, developed any argument for that prejudice standard (or
    even acknowledged its unusual nature) or claimed that the evidence
    in this case would satisfy it.5    Instead, the SEC has consistently
    argued for a different prejudice standard that places the burden
    on Sargent to show prejudice.     As a result, the SEC has waived any
    argument that this form of harmlessness review should apply, and
    we need not decide the issue.     See Zannino, 
    895 F.2d at 17
    .
    We affirm.
    5 The SEC did not move for judgment as a matter of law
    in the District Court and makes no argument to us that it was
    entitled to such relief. We also note that Sargent made two such
    motions, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to permit a
    reasonable jury to find against him.    Judge Young denied both
    motions.
    - 20 -