Noncitizens as jurors? It's not a discrimination issue

[alp227]

By George Skelton
Capitol Journal

August 28, 2013, 7:27 p.m.

SACRAMENTO—Bills are cascading out of the Legislature in free-fall as lawmakers race to adjournment for the year, most measures headed for the governor with little debate.

It's the annual sprint to "do something" — to make a mark, regardless of how faint.

Not all the bills, however, are as innocuous as they're treated.

One such measure, granted final passage last week by the state Assembly, would substantially change California's court system by allowing noncitizen legal immigrants to serve on juries.

Nowhere else in America is a noncitizen permitted to be a juror — not in any state, not in any federal court.

The bill, AB 1401, was discussed on the Assembly floor for only seven minutes before being sent to Gov. Jerry Brown on a party-line vote, 48 to 28, with most Democrats in favor, all Republicans opposed.

It often amazes me how issues that really shouldn't have a partisan hue wind up being voted on as if they're either blue or red.

There's no indication how the Democratic governor feels about opening up juries to noncitizens, or even if he has thought about it.

full: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-cap-jury-20130829,0,5945254,full.column

This bill was debated today on KQED public radio.

[pscot]

1. Does the Constitution permit it?

[SheilaT]

2. In a lot of places jurors are selected

from the voter roles.

I know people who won't register to vote for fear that they might, God forbid, someday serve on a jury.

I've been registered to vote for nearly forty years now, and only got a jury summons once. Didn't get selected though.

[haele]

3. In CA, initial selection depends on if they have CA ID/Driver's licenses.

If you have a CA ID, or a CA driver's license, that's the first requirement to be summoned for jury service.
The courts get the list of resident ID and driver's license holders from the State, and apply their own requirements filter on top of that.

That's probably why there's a bill to allow non-citizens to serve. There's a backlog in the courts because of the amount of "ineligeble" jurors being summoned.

Haele