California governor rejects jury duty for legal immigrants

California's governor vetoed a bill on Monday that would have allowed legal immigrants who are not citizens to serve on juries in the nation's most populous state, saying being a juror is an obligation that comes with citizenship.

"This bill would permit lawful permanent residents who are not citizens to serve on a jury," said Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat. "I don't think that's right." 

The bill was part of a broader effort to expand immigrant rights in strongly Democratic California, where Brown last week signed into law measures that would allow undocumented immigrants to legally drive and practice law.

The veto comes as the state has rapidly expanded the rights of immigrants — both legal and undocumented — even as the U.S. Congress has so far failed to pass sweeping immigration reforms sought by the White House.

No state currently allows noncitizens to serve on juries, and analysts said Brown's veto was in keeping with a more centrist path charted by the governor and some Democrats this year as they tried to avoid alienating moderate voters.

"Politically, he did not hurt himself by that veto," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California. "He showed what he believed in." She added that had Brown signed the bill, he could have provoked a powerful response among conservative voters as the legislature is trying to hold on to a Democratic supermajority. Brown is widely believed to be preparing to run for re-election.

The 75-year-old Brown has pushed Democratic lawmakers toward a more moderate path on such issues as taxes and the state budget and threatened to veto a proposed minimum-wage hike until party leaders agreed to postpone its implementation.

The sponsor of the jury bill, Democratic Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, expressed dismay at the veto, likening rules disqualifying permanent residents from jury service to long-discarded laws that kept black people and women from participating.

"I don't see anything wrong with imposing this civic obligation on immigrants who can spend the rest of their lives in the United States," Wieckowski, who represents the San Francisco suburb of Fremont, said in a statement.

"Lawful permanent immigrants are part of the fabric of our communities, and they benefit from the protections of our laws, so it is fair and just that they be asked to share in the obligation to do jury duty," he said.

California's overall push to expand privileges for immigrants is largely focused on the roughly 2.6 million undocumented immigrants who are living in the state.

It is a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters two decades ago sought to bar undocumented immigrants from all public services — including elementary and secondary education — but where some such immigrants now receive grants for in-state college tuition.

That push is in stark contrast to other states like bordering Arizona, which earlier this month widened its ban on driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants.

But the jury measure differed from those laws because it did not address the social needs of undocumented immigrants. Instead the law would have conferred new rights and duties on immigrants who are in the U.S. legally as permanent residents, which opponents complained went too far.

"Serving on a jury is a responsibility best left up to the citizens who have pledged allegiance to the United States," said Republican Assemblyman Brian Jones, who represents part of San Diego County.

Reuters