Comments on: Let non-citizens serve on juries? https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/ Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 28 May 2013 15:33:36 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ron Miller https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-216544 Tue, 28 May 2013 15:33:36 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-216544 Your biochemist friend would be wonderful, to be sure. I’m curious as to which immigrants to you think would be ill-suited?

]]> By: Walter Olson https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215205 Wed, 22 May 2013 20:22:21 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215205 The usual premise is that jury service gives you a cross-section, and it becomes less of a cross-section if one begins consciously over-representing persons on unemployment, a group that might on average have particular leanings favorable toward some sorts of litigant/defendant or unfavorable toward others.

]]> By: Jim Collins https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215200 Wed, 22 May 2013 19:34:31 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215200 I’ve never figured out why Jury Duty isn’t tied to unemployment benefits? Let it count as a search contact. They are already being paid, just cover parking and meals.

]]> By: Jamie R https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215188 Wed, 22 May 2013 18:33:31 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215188 From the linked article: “The most important thing is that legal aliens will not sufficiently understand the intricacies of the rule of law, especially due process and equal protection,”

There’s only minimal evidence that citizens understand the rule of law. I don’t see how immigrants could do worse.

]]> By: John Burgess https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215178 Wed, 22 May 2013 17:29:56 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215178 Were Assemblyman Wieckowski to face criminal trial, I’m sure he’d be comfortable with a jury comprised of non-citizens. I mean, if they get it wrong, he only has to do time in jail, right? So what’s the harm?

]]> By: John Fembup https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215175 Wed, 22 May 2013 17:08:23 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215175 As Jay Leno remarked a few weeks ago, this is just another example of work that non-citizens may end up doing, because Americans won’t.

]]> By: Leland D. Davis https://www.overlawyered.com/2013/05/let-non-citizens-serve-juries/comment-page-1/#comment-215165 Wed, 22 May 2013 16:15:15 +0000 http://overlawyered.com/?p=38588#comment-215165 I kind of agree with the author that it is a bad idea, because many immigrants don’t really understand our civic traditions well enough to serve properly as jurors. That said, a professor (biochemist) I knew who came from India delayed gaining US citizenship for a number of years, until he was involved with his local parent teacher association, and a county councilman he was talking to about the schools asked him about citizenship. He would have been great on a jury panel well before he naturalized. I guess it all depends on which non-citizen residents you know.

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