UPDATE: 1st Circuit Rejects Plan for More Diverse Juries, But . . .

. . . not because it's necessarily a bad plan. Not long ago, Bostonist told you about an attempt by Judge Nancy Gertner of the Federal District Court of Massachusetts to change the way federal criminal juries are selected. She was concerned that blacks made up only three percent of the people in jury pools, although they constitute six percent of the population in the eastern counties of Massachusetts from which jurors are drawn, so she devised a way to increase the number of jurors from underrepresented ZIP codes (which tend to be largely minority). Bostonist liked the plan because it was race-neutral (i.e., it didn't affirmatively favor the selection of, say, black citizens) but would have the effect of correcting statistical underrepresentation on a geographic baisis, wherever it occurred (so if Wellesley and Weston weren't contributing their share of jurors, that would get fixed too).

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Attorney's office (the folks who prosecute federal criminal cases) was strongly opposed to the new system, which would have been put in place only for one particular trial. They appealed to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and on Friday that court rejected the new plan.

When Bostonist read the Globe's story on the decision, we got the impression that the Court of Appeals rejected the plan because it selected jurors in a way that was not random enough, which seemed odd to us. But when we read the actual opinion, we were relieved. As it turns out, there is a law that requires district courts to devise jury selection plans and approve them through a vote of all the judges. The Court of Appeals simply said was that Judge Gertner's plan hadn't been put in place using the procedures required by law. (The Court specifically refused to evaluate the actual merit of the plan.) Considering that the chief judge of the district court filed a brief supporting the new plan, it seems likely that these new procedures for more representative juries may well be put in place in the future. So stay tuned, if, like Bostonist, you're the sort of nerd/lawyer who cares about these things.

Photo: The Moakley Federal Courthouse.