Title 28 › Part PART V— - PROCEDURE › Chapter CHAPTER 121— - JURIES; TRIAL BY JURY › § 1863
Each United States district court must write and run a written plan to pick grand and petit jurors at random. A reviewing panel made up of the circuit’s judicial council members and the district’s chief judge (or a judge the chief judge picks) must approve the plan. If the panel finds problems, it will say what is wrong and order a fixed-time fix. The court must tell the panel, the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and the Attorney General when it first adopts the plan and when it changes the plan. The Judicial Conference can make rules about how plans work. The court may use different plans for different divisions and must send a report about jury selection to the Administrative Office as the Judicial Conference requires. The court must send its first plan to the panel within 120 days of the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968. The panel must approve or require changes within 60 days. Approved plans or required changes take effect no later than 90 days after approval. Each plan must say who runs jury selection (a jury commission or the clerk) and, if a commission is used, name a citizen to serve with the clerk (three citizens in the District of Columbia). The citizen must live in the district and not be in the same political party as the clerk, and may be paid up to $50 per day plus travel and other expenses. Plans must say what lists will be used for names (voter registration or actual voter lists, with other sources added if needed) and may include special rules for the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, or Massachusetts. Plans must use random procedures to get a fair cross-section and proportional county or parish representation. Names go into a master jury wheel (or similar), with at least one-half of 1 percent of the total list placed in it at first but never fewer than one thousand names. The wheel must be emptied and refilled at least once every four years. Plans must allow certain people to be excused on request for undue hardship, must excuse volunteer safety personnel on request (unpaid firefighters or rescue crew members serving a public agency), and must exempt active Armed Forces members, fire or police department members, and public officers actively at work. Plans must state when names drawn will be made public, but a judge may keep names secret when justice requires. The plan must also set how people are assigned to grand and petit jury panels. State, local, and federal officials who keep voter lists must let the jury commission or clerk inspect and copy them, and the Attorney General can ask a court to force compliance.
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Judiciary and Judicial Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
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Reference
Citation
28 U.S.C. § 1863
Title 28 — Judiciary and Judicial Procedure
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73