Just before the holidays, I spent time carefully arranging my calendar for March. Booked a trip to Chicago for the ABA's fabled Tech Show one week, and booked a trip to Washington DC for the Big Ten basketball tourney with some college friends I had not seen in a few years.

Then, last week, a jury summons showed up in the mail. Not just any summons; this one was for federal court. The only other time in my life that I was called for jury duty [2002] was also for federal court in Detroit.

Here's how federal jury duty works: the summons advises that you are on call for two weeks. The prospective juror is required to call a number every night and listen to a recording advising whether you have to appear at the Theodore Levin federal courthouse in Detroit the next day.

In my case, the two weeks overlapped with both trips for which I had just completed payment. As I thought about how to go about postponing my commitment, a sinking feeling overcame me as I dialed the number on the summons.

After entering my juror number and following the recorded prompts, I could tell the court's administrative office was waiting for prospective jurors like me. Who among us doesn't have something significant in any given week that, in our minds, constitutes good cause to avoid reporting for jury duty? I hung-up the phone.

Instead of trying to write the requisite missive to the court explaining all of my carefully laid plans and how they conflicted with my prospective jury service and awaiting their response, I set about cancelling my trips.

At first, I thought, what a shame; having to cancel two trips for being on juror call when I would never be sworn in as a juror anyway due to my status as a practicing lawyer. I was really looking forward to getting to Chicago as I had not been in a while. Same thing Washington DC.

Then I got to thinking how important jurors were when selecting them for one of my own trials. How much the Court and the litigators counted on those jurors to arrive at the courthouse on time each morning to pay close attention so we could put on our case without delay; how much we counted on them to "get it right".

Serving on a jury is one of the most important services we can perform as citizens. Our service allows trials to proceed through a verdict that will determine the outcome of a dispute. Jury service is therefore one of the hallmarks of our civil society.

Post #576

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There is a little known law here in Michigan that requires residents of any county to completely fill out and return a Jury Questionnaire.  Specifically, here is what we are all obligated to do pursuant to a chapter of our "catchall" statute known as the Revised Judicature Act:

Persons on the first jury list are required to return the questionnaire fully answered to the [County's] jury board within 10 days after it is received. [Bracket Supplied]

Last Monday, a resident of Bay County and ex-convict, reported to the Bay County Jail after have been held in contempt of court by Judge Joseph Sheeran for violating the above statute.

The man was held in contempt for completing his questionnaire with vulgarities and for scribbling things such as:

Leave me alone!! Please. Die in Hell Pigs/Judges/DAs.

He also told the judges to "f-off" and had other choice things to say that we will not print here at the Law Blogger.  The man's redacted handiwork can be viewed by clicking here.

This prospective juror's criminal defense lawyer could not keep the man from a jail sentence, however brief.  As noted by Judge Sheeran, all this man had to do was to disclose his ex-convict status and he would have been excused.

Was this individual as stupid as he accused the judges and county government workers being?  Or does he have the right to redress the government with an inartful complaint?

The interesting thing about this case is whether the citizen was entitled to "editorialize" his responses, incomplete as they were, as a part of his First Amendment right to freedom of expression and to petition the government with his grievances.  Or is his conduct and speech simply subject to the usual "time and place" restrictions relative to things [like census forms, tax returns, and other documents] that the government requires us to fill-out and file with one of their subdivisions?

Mi-Live's coverage of this man's conviction is replete with over 100 comments giving the many flavors, some frivilous, others quite serious, of our collective public view of such conduct, speech and government action.  Here are some of the comments this story has generated among the professionals, courtesy of the ABA.

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