If there’s one slice of humanity that should enthusiastically embrace jury duty, it should be judges. These are the poor wretches who have to sit there and construct a jury over lawyer quibbling, scheduling issues, and phony excuses. Putting together any jury is hard work, and putting together a jury that a litigant — especially a criminal defendant — deserves is even harder.
That’s why Judge Michael Hoelscher, of Sedgwick County, Kansas (the Wichita area, for those interested), earned such a stone cold benchslap from U.S. District Court Judge Eric Melgren. It seems Judge Hoelscher received a jury duty summons a few weeks back and simply did not respond. Judge Melgren issued an Order to Show Cause for the state judge’s absence and then… all hell broke loose. From Judge Melgren’s opinion:
What happened next, however, was most unusual; indeed, in this Court’s experience, it is unprecedented. My staff received an irate phone call from an attorney, Stephen Joseph, indicating that he had been retained by Respondent in regards to the Show Cause Order, informing my staff that Respondent was a state court judge (of which fact we were aware), and that as such Respondent was not required to respond to the jury summons. A Motion to Vacate Order to Show Cause was soon thereafter filed with the Court. The motion asserts that as a state court judge, Respondent was exempt from jury service. This motion was quickly followed up with an e-mail to the Chief Judge of this court threatening to subpoena numerous officials of this court to demonstrate their “ignorance of the law” and warning that “when I go to court, I go to win.”
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Attorney Stephen Joseph wins the chutzpah award for emailing the Chief Judge of U.S. District Court with threats. To borrow from the famous book, “What is the matter with Kansas?”
While Judge Hoelscher did have a legal claim to avoid federal jury service, Judge Melgren cited fellow jurists who declined to take advantage of the legal cop out available and fulfilled their civic duty. He need not have limited his examples to the District of Kansas — Justice Kagan even takes the time to show up when called to serve.
When Respondent’s attorney called my staff, indignant about the Order, he told her that they would just show up at the hearing and “have some fun,” presumably by demonstrating Respondent’s legal exemption. Loathe though I am to interfere with anyone’s plan for fun…
Well played, Judge Melgren. For that snark, you’re welcome to an Above the Law T-shirt if you choose to claim it.
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… if Respondent Judge Hoelshcer wants to insist upon being exempt from jury duty, then I will honor the exemption the law provides to him, and grant his Motion to Vacate. I do so sadly, believing that judges (and other public officials) should to the fullest extent possible comply with the laws with which we expect others to comply; but I do so with the confidence that most of us do.
In any event, Judge Melgren apparently abides by the “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” school of parenting.
(To read Judge Melgren’s entire Order, click to the next page.)