Senator Wiener Introduces SB 271, the Fair Federal Juries Act, to Continue Creating More Representative Jury Pools

SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 271, the Fair Federal Juries Act. This legislation will expand jury pools in federal courts in California by allowing them to summon jurors using state tax filing lists. This will help create more diverse and demographically representative juries in federal courts, as jurors are currently selected from narrower lists that are more likely to skew wealthier, whiter and generally less diverse. This legislation builds on SB 592 (Wiener, 2020), which expanded state jury pools. State jury pools had previously been made up of registered voters and licensed drivers or identification card holders. With SB 592, all tax filers in California can be summoned for jury duty in state courts. SB 271 would allow California’s federal courts to do the same.   

To ensure juries – the backbone of our justice system – are actually reflective of their communities, it’s critical that Federal Jury Commissioners be allowed to include a broader, more representative list of Californians as they select jurors.

SB 271 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. 

Currently, Federal Jury Commissioners only pull potential jurors from lists of those who are registered to vote, and those who have driver’s licenses or identification cards – similar to what California Jury Commissioners did prior to SB 592 becoming law. Studies show that by pulling only from those two lists, courts are deprived of thousands of eligible prospective jurors, and that racial minorities are underrepresented on juries. This underrepresentation denies civil and criminal litigants of a jury pool that truly reflects their communities at large. 

“Right now, state courts choose from a larger and more diverse list of potential jurors than federal courts operating in California do,” said Senator Scott Wiener. “We need to expand the work we did on SB 592 to ensure that the federal juries in California can truly reflect the diversity of our state. People deserve a fair trial heard by a jury of their peers. SB 271 will help us get closer to that ideal.”