Must you affirm a belief in "diversity" to serve as a juror? Save some room on your plate for local issues. Counterpoint on American Birthright Social Studies Standards.
Are you invalid as a juror if you will not affirm a belief in "diversity"?
The Colorado Supreme Court will soon hear a case asking to toss out the conviction of a man who said his jury was tainted when a juror would not affirm the value of diversity. The particulars of the story are kind of long and involved, but I can hit the high spots.
--During jury selection, you can be tossed out of the jury for cause or for a pre-emptory challenge. The judge ultimately decides the "for cause" but lawyers have a limited number of disqualifications that require no reason (the pre-emptory challenges).
--During the jury selection for the case in mentioned in the op ed below, a potential juror was asked if he disagreed with the notion that "diversity makes us all stronger". The juror said no, he didn't think so.
--The defense's lawyer asked the judge to toss the juror. The judge said no. The lawyer then used a pre-emptory challenge.
--The suit alleges that this left the lawyer with one less disqualification and thus the jury pool was not fair.
If you're thinking "this seems tenuous at best with regard to the idea that the missing challenge made the trial unfair", you and I think alike.
Before we even talk diversity, let's address that. The chances that the string of events above necessarily made the trial unfair strike me as beyond a stretch. I don't think that chain of reasoning holds.
Now let's examine the elephant in the room. Does a belief that diversity doesn't make us stronger automatically make you unfit for jury duty?
Regardless of what you think of diversity and what it does/doesn't do, would this make you unfair? Unable to impartially consider the evidence?
I would submit that it doesn't. Part of the reason why I say this is that we might all have different ideas of what diversity means and how it may or may not benefit us all. Merely asking someone to affirm a statement like the one above doesn't tell us much about what someone believes specifically and thus can't speak to whether or not they'd be prejudiced against any particular defendant.
The other part of the reason why is that nowhere in any founding document (either in Colorado or at the Federal level) will you find any ideological qualifications for jury duty. The idea that we should start that now is wrongheaded.
Knowing what I know of the Colorado State Supreme Court, I have to admit to some nerves about how they'll rule here.
I join the author in urging them to answer the question must a citizen affirm support of “diversity” to serve on a jury? with a resounding "NO".
https://coloradosun.com/2023/02/20/jurors-courts-diversity-racial-bias-speech-opinion/
It is entertaining to read and watch about Biden and etc., but I urge you to save some room on your plate for local elections and politics.
In particular, and this one is news to me, Special Districts Elections.
Special Districts are exactly the kinds of things that affect your life right now, today and they are exactly the kinds of things that fly under the radar.
While it's good to consider Biden's handling of a train wreck in Ohio, if you do so to the exclusion of missing a Metro District Election that will be causing you immediate harm via property tax increases, I think you're being shortsighted.
Give the article below a look. It details how you can get involved in the easy and IMPACTFUL local elections that have immediate impact on your life.
Take note of a couple things in screenshots 1 and 2 attached.
#1: the elections happen at odd times so read up.
#2: I don't want to harp on it, but should you need some extra encouragement to get involved, read up on all the things Special Districts can do. This is most assuredly not irrelevant.
https://thetaborfoundation.org/special-districts-and-the-taxpayers-bill-of-rights-2/#more-3940
Some counterpoint on American Birthright Social Studies Standards.
If you have watched anything recently about the Colorado Board of Education and social studies standards, you have likely heard about the American Birthright social studies standards.
And, if you've been reading the same things I have, you have likely seen them pilloried in the press.
That calls for some counterpoint in my view. That calls for a look at them from a different perspective.
If you go to near the bottom in the link below, you'll heard an interview between the Independence Institute's education policy director, Mrs. Benigno, and Dr. David Randall, the Executive Director of the Civics Alliance (the group that developed the standards).
Worth a listen. Maybe you won't agree, maybe you will, but it's always good to spread out what read and hear about things.
https://i2i.org/american-birthright-social-studies-standards-a-discussion/