The ACLU of Alaska submitted an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief in Smith v. State of Alaska asking the Court of Appeals to hold that excluding Alaska Native villages from jury service violates rural residents' rights to equal protection and due process.
The state of Alaska currently excludes more than 150 rural and predominantly Alaska Native communities from participating in juries due to policies that prioritize costs-savings and court efficiency. This violates both rural residents' right to serve on a jury and criminal defendants' right to be tried by a jury that represents his or her community. We worked with the Native American Rights Fund to ask the Court to ensure all Alaskans can serve on and are tried by juries that include all Alaskans.
