Jury Patriotism Act: The Best Answer?

Proponents of the Jury Patriotism Act say that it will help protect the right to a trial by jury by enlarging the jury pool. The Act will alleviate some of the burdens that make serving on a jury a hardship for many and provide a larger and more representative jury pool.

Kristin Armshaw, civil justice task force director for ALEC, says if states adopt the Jury Patriotism Act will advance "Both justice and fairness will be advanced. The legislation will ensure a larger, more diverse, and more representative pool of potential jurors. At the same time, it will make certain that all citizens share the responsibility of service equally."

"We feel, with the current situation where a number of states allow for professional exemptions, or do not have any rules about hardship exemption abuses, and also where people could potentially be waiting to serve on a trial for days, it discourages jury service, makes it too easy to get out of and really limits the jury pool," Armshaw told CNS News.

Opponents of the Jury Patriotism Act say the compelling jury duty by any law is just another form of involuntary servitude. In an article Use Market to Select Jurors, Dominick Armentano, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, says jurors should be treated like others who do public service work -- recruit them, train them, and pay them.

"Policemen perform all sorts of civic duties but they are not drafted; they are carefully recruited and paid. Telephone companies require that individuals climb poles and repair transformers; they train and pay the people that they need," Armamento wrote. Jurors "... would be happier and more productive, more capable of deciding technically difficult cases and the problem of juror shortages would be minimized as a result of tapping a more receptive labor pool that is paid a competitive wage for their service."

"A juror-hiring system is more consistent with common-sense notions of liberty and justice for jurors. After all, potential jurors are innocent of all crime yet, ironically, they are the ones deprived of their liberty and ordered to sit in judgment of those charged with real crimes," Armamento wrote.

Several states have adopted some form of the Jury Patriotism Act. On July 7, 2004, Missouri Governor Bob Holden became the eighth governor to sign a version of ALEC's Jury Patriotism Act into law. The legislation has been introduced in 16 other states, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council.