Opinion ID: 306444
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Exclusion of young people.

Text: 20 Ross asserts that the Plan operates in such a manner that persons 21 to 24 1 years old are substantially excluded from jury service. While the argument is not entirely clear, it seems to make two related points. 21 First, Ross argues that the Plan's use of voter registration lists as the exclusive source of names of potential jurors is in violation of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1863 (b)(2). 2 This is so, he says because young people are less politically active than their elders and hence less likely to register to vote. This argument is without merit. The Act and its legislative history clearly contemplate that the use of sources other than voter lists will be the exception rather than the rule. 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1863(b)(2); 1968 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, pp. 1793-95. Ross has not alleged that the right of young persons to register to vote has been inhibited in any way. Under such circumstances, exclusive reliance upon voter lists did not violate the Act. United States v. Bennett, 9 Cir., 1971, 445 F.2d 638, 641; Camp v. United States, 5 Cir., 1969, 413 F.2d 419, 421. 22 Ross' second argument is that persons between the ages of 21 and 24 are systematically excluded from jury panels in the Northern District of California, and thus such panels are not drawn from a fair cross-section of the community in violation of 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1861. At the hearing below, he introduced data purporting to show that, while persons in that age group comprised only 2.67% of the names in the master jury wheel from which his jury was later selected, they represented 10.62% of the population in the relevant geographical area and 8.34% of the registered voters in that area. He contends that these data support, indeed, compel, the inference that young people are improperly excluded from juries. We do not agree. 23 Because voter registration lists are the source of names of potential jurors, and because people continue to increase in age after registering persons only recently eligible to vote will always be under-represented in the master jury wheel. This lag does not violate the Act. Duncan, supra, 456 F.2d at 1405-1406. A bald comparison of percentages will therefore not support an inference of systematic exclusion. Moreover, Ross' data show that roughly 15% of the persons in the master jury wheel either did not respond to the juror questionnaires which were mailed to them or did not indicate their age on the questionnaire. It may well be that a disproportionate share of these no responses were young people; Ross' own evidence shows that they are highly mobile and less inclined to participate in governmental activities. At any rate, Ross makes no attempt to account for these persons, and the validity of his percentages is thus open to considerable question. 24 Ross' argument on this point fails for a second reason. It is well established that jury pools are not required to be a mirror image of the community. Swain v. Alabama, 1964, 380 U.S. 202, 208, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759. To establish a violation of section 1861, it is necessary to show the systematic exclusion of an identifiable group within the community. United States v. James, 9 Cir., 1971, 453 F.2d 27, 29. We hold that persons between the ages of 21 and 24 do not constitute such a group. 25 Both before and since passage of the Act, courts have been requested to recognize young people as a distinct group for purposes of determining whether a jury panel includes a fair cross-section of the community. 3 With one exception, which is distinguishable, 4 they have refused to do so. This reluctance is justified in light of the fact that the parameters of such a group are difficult to ascertain, as evidenced by the widely varying ages which have been used to define it, and that its membership and their values are constantly in flux. There appears to be no factor other than age which defines this group, and we can perceive no reason to arbitrarily single out a narrow group of young persons as opposed to middle-aged or old persons for purposes of jury service. In this connection we find it significant that while Sec. 1862 of the Act prohibits excluding a citizen from jury service on account of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or economic status it does not mention youth or age. 26 In an attempt to alleviate these concerns, Ross introduced the testimony of a sociologist and a psychiatrist to the effect that persons between the ages of 12 and 25 represent a subculture within American society which has values and mores distinctly different from those of their elders. Interesting as this evidence is, we are not persuaded by it. Both of Ross' experts conceded that there was only a rough correlation between age and the values and behavioral trends that they described. Moreover, one of them stated that there is a dearth of reliable data on this subject, and the other acknowledged that there is a divergence of values within the youth subculture. In such circumstances, we are unwilling to require that persons between the ages of 21 and 24 must be represented in jury pools in exact proportion to their representation in the population as a whole. We have discussed the administrative problems that such a requirement would create in Duncan, supra, 456 F.2d at 1406. 27