Court Opinion

ID: 9470579
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:09:59.636046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:59.384868
License: Public Domain

SETH, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
I must respectfully dissent from the position expressed in the majority opinion because I cannot agree that the defendant, who removed a state petty offense charge from Colorado, is entitled to a jury trial on such offense before a federal magistrate.
There is no constitutional right to a jury trial before a federal magistrate on a petty offense, Frank v. United States, 395 U.S. 147, 89 S.Ct. 1503, 23 L.Ed.2d 162, and Fed. R.Mag.P. 2(b)(6) provides that there are no such jury trials for petty offenses. Thus reliance must be placed entirely on state law to create such a right in the federal court where the rule is to the contrary.
The Colorado statute should not and really cannot introduce into the federal courts such a trial because state laws cannot alter the essential character or functions of a federal court. Herron v. Southern Pacific Co., 283 U.S. 91, 51 S.Ct. 383, 75 L.Ed. 857. The distribution of trial functions between judge and jury is an “essential characteristic” of the federal judicial system. Byrd v. Blue Ridge Cooperative, 356 U.S. 525, 537, 78 S.Ct. 893, 900, 2 L.Ed.2d 953. Colorado law in this instance cannot control the distribution of such a basic trial function, and in any event, it cannot do so in the absence of assertions of unfair discrimination or an encouragement of forum shopping. Thus the statement of policy by Colorado cannot in itself be a determination for this court as to whether or not a petty offense and perhaps a three-person jury should become part of the federal magistrate system. The implications of such a doctrine are apparent.
The role of state policy in the federal decision as to substantive or procedural has been severely circumscribed by the Supreme Court. State assertions that certain rights are “substantive” or “important” are not to be accepted as the answer by federal courts. The Supreme Court has stated that the importance of a state rule is only relevant in the context of asking whether the failure to apply the state rule would unfairly discriminate against citizens of the forum state or whether application of the state rule would encourage forum shopping. Hanna v. Plumer, 380 U.S. 460, 468, n. 9, 85 S.Ct. 1136, 1142, n. 9, 14 L.Ed.2d 8.
The state provision for a three-person jury has nothing to do with the elements, nature or description of the offense charged. If the structure of the jury has to be changed in the federal magistrate court from that existing in the state court, it would appear that this would demonstrate that the “right” is not what it is characterized to be — that is a substantive right to a three-person jury.
The reason for the enactment of the Colorado statute is most persuasive as it demon*301strates that “substantive” was there used in a different sense and one we should not consider here. Instead, it was used to meet a purely local political problem in state government or a need perceived by the state legislature arising in certain Colorado communities. It appears to have been enacted solely, and the term “substantive” used, to counter the authority exercised by some Colorado home rule cities. No reason has been advanced why there should be introduced such a device characterized as substantive for such a particular and local purpose into the federal magistrate system where the policy and practice is to the contrary.
The three-person jury cannot be made a substantive right for the purposes here considered because the Colorado legislature so describes it.