Editorial: DC Voting Rights v Federal Jury Service

by Bill Adler

A recent message on the Cleveland Park Listserv about Federal jury duty opened the door to the question of voting rights versus Federal jury service.

What do voting rights for District of Columbia residents have to do with Federal jury duty service? They could have a lot to do with Federal jury duty service. When we, District of Columbia residents, are called to serve on a Federal jury, we are tasked with deciding a case based on a laws made by people elected by
somebody else. When Congress votes on laws about copyright, drugs, gun trafficking, bribery, or campaign finance, Americans have an opportunity to talk their Representative and Senators to either advance or oppose that law. But we don't. If you are an American citizen living in the District of Columbia you
have no say in how our laws are made.

What can we do about that? If we can't influence laws before they are made, what about after they are passed? Can we have a say in the legislative process after the fact? Yes, we can. And we should. We should tell the judge who asks us if we can follow the law as jurors, "Because I do not have any say in how laws are made, because I have no voting representation in Congress, serving on a Federal jury is my only opportunity to affect the laws that govern me and that I have to judge others with."

I was just reading an article about the Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial bill that I oppose. The article said that the bill's opponents should "call your congressperson on the phone." If this law passes the day may come when a Federal jury will be called upon to decide a case based on SOPA. If that happens, being
on a jury will be our only chance to have any input into that law.

Let me take a moment to talk about what I'm not proposing: I am not talking about District of Columbia jury duty service: The Council makes our laws and we are represented on the City Council. I am not talking about avoiding Federal jury duty service. In fact, judges should hear from us about how lack of
representation in Congress is unfair. I am not talking about jury nullification, which is when a jury acts in opposition to a judge's instructions. I'm talking about sending a message to Congress: If you want us to judge based on the laws you pass, give us the same rights as other Americans to have a say in how those
laws are made.

What about a fair trial? What happens to defendants when prospective jurors balk at serving? It certainly makes it harder to find a jury, but there can be no fair trial when a juror believes that the law or the process by which the law is made isn't fair in the first place. There can be no fair trial when the first and only time a citizen has a chance to express his views about a law is as a juror.

Imagine if every District resident who was called to Federal jury service expressed these views. Do you think that Congress would take notice? You bet they would. This is another path to voting rights, one that would be hard to ignore.

----

Bill Adler is the co-publisher of the Cleveland Park Listserv, www.cleveland-park.com.

Fear of Stuff

Two items that you might want to keep in mind if your travels take you to distant lands.  Kuwait has banned DSLR cameras (big, digital cameras with big lenses) for everyone other than professional journalists. Small digital cameras and cell phone cameras are still okay.

A village in India, Muzaffarnagar, has banned cell phones for unmarried girls to thwart them from eloping.

And in the District of Columbia, cameras are prohibited from being brought into the Superior Court Building, but "you may bring a mobile phone into the building; however, you are not permitted to use the phone's camera function on the premises." Never mind that a cell phone camera can take really good photos, as in this front page New York Times photograph.

Federal Grand Jury Service: What Those 18 Months Are Like

A question posted by a reader of the blog Prince of Petworth wondered if it's common for District residents to get called for Federal grand jury service for 18 months. The answer is yes. Federal grand jury service is different from being a juror in DC Superior Court, which lasts one day or one trial. It's different from being called as a grand juror in the District of Columbia, which lasts for 25 days. And it's even different from being called as a federal Petit (Trial) juror, which lasts two and a half weeks.  As a federal Petit juror you check in every night by phone to see if you're wanted the next day.

Federal Grand Jury is the mother of all jury duties and lasts 18 months.  Here's a summary of what you can expect do to if you're called as a Federal grand juror: "A grand jury...normally consists of 16 to 23 members. The United States attorney, the prosecutor in federal criminal cases, presents evidence to the grand jury for them to determine whether there is 'probable cause' to believe that an individual has committed a crime and should be put on trial."

Googling People is Legal, Court Rules

Well, Googling people has always legal. But now if you're a lawyer, it's legal to Google (or Bing) potential jurors during jury selection, reports Law.com.

We just thought that all the lawyers and jurors in the area would want to know. If you see a lawyer fiddling with his or her iPhone during voir dire, they may not be updating their Facebook status page, but rather checking yours.