Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, introduced earlier this month the Fair Federal Juries Act, or S.B. 271, building off of legislation he proposed in 2019 and was enacted in 2020 that allows California state courts to summon jurors from state tax filings.
Weiner said in a statement on Wednesday that the state needs to allow federal courts to pull potential jurors from tax records, so federal juries are representative of the diverse population of California.
"Right now, state courts choose from a larger and more diverse list of potential jurors than federal courts operating in California do," Wiener said.
Currently, California federal courts select potential jurors from lists of registered voters and individuals who have driver's licenses or ID cards.
According to Weiner, limiting potential jurors to these two lists omits thousands of eligible prospective jurors and results in racial minorities being underrepresented on juries, denying litigants a jury pool that is reflective of their communities.
The new bill "is an important piece of the puzzle of how we can remake our criminal justice system to be fairer and less racially and socioeconomically biased. More representative juries lead to a more equitable criminal justice system, where trials are heard by a more representative cross section of our community," the statement said.
California's Judicial Council has been working for nearly 30 years to create a more robust jury system through its jury improvement program. Changes that have been made through the program include increasing juror pay and allowing for expedited jury trials.
In 2020, California enacted S.B. 310 that changed the state's court rules to allow certain individuals with criminal records to serve on juries.
--Editing by Steven Edelstone.
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