Judge Pat Higginbotham, Chief Judge Lee Rosenthal & Law Prof. Steve Gensler on the 12-person civil jury
You practically never see a jury trial as a pro se, it’s stacked against you by manipulated orders and opinions due to Ochlocracy and Judicial corruption in Texas Federal Courts
AUG 26, 2020 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: MAR 25, 2022
Judge Patrick Higginbotham, Judge Lee Rosenthal, and Professor Steve Gensler have published Better by the Dozen: Bringing Back the Twelve-Person Civil Jury in the latest issue of Judicature.
Their article begins:
A jury of 12 resonates through the centuries. Twelve-person juries were a fixture from at least the 14th century until the 1970s. Over 600 years of history is a powerful endorsement. So too are the many social-science studies consistently showing that a 12-person jury makes for a better deliberative process, with more predictable (and fewer outlier) results, by a more diverse group that is a more representative cross-section of the community. To that, add the benefit of engaging more citizens in the best civics lesson the judiciary offers. To all of that, add our common sense telling us that 12 heads are better than six, or eight, or even ten.
History. Social science. Civics. Common sense. That’s a powerful quartet. And yet, most federal judges today routinely seat civil juries without the full complement of 12 members. Why? Because in 1973 the United States Supreme Court said it was okay. Since then, the smaller-than-12-person jury has become a habit. For many courts, it has become the default.
About Steven Gensler
Steven Gensler is the Gene and Elaine Edwards Family Chair in Law and the President’s Associates Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He has served as a member of the U.S. Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and currently serves as a consultant to the Judicial Conference’s Federal-State Jurisdiction Committee.
About Patrick Higginbotham
Patrick Higginbotham is a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He has served as chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules and serves on two advisory groups of RAND. He is jurist in residence at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio.
About Lee Rosenthal
Lee Rosenthal is chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She serves as vice president of the American Law Institute and as a member of the Bolch Judicial Institute Advisory Board.