Sponsors (17)
The bill broadens jury access for people with disabilities by requiring reasonable accommodations and clearer guidance, but imposes modest new costs and administrative burdens on courts and taxpayers.
People with disabilities gain the explicit right to serve on federal grand and petit juries when reasonable accommodations make service possible, increasing civic participation and representation.
Federal courts and jury administrators receive clearer statutory guidance for evaluating accommodation requests, reducing arbitrary exclusions and standardizing decision-making.
Taxpayers and local courts may incur additional administrative and financial costs to provide reasonable accommodations (e.g., assistive devices, staff support, accessible spaces).
Federal employees and court staff may face increased workload and slower jury selection or proceedings while accommodation determinations are made, potentially causing delays.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits disability-based exclusion from federal jury service and requires reasonable accommodation before disqualification.
Prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in federal jury service and limits disqualification for jury duty based on disability when a reasonable accommodation would make service possible. It amends two federal jury statutes to replace absolute-disqualification language with a standard that requires reasonable accommodation before someone may be excluded for disability. The changes add anti‑discrimination language to the jury-service statutes and create a rule that a person cannot be disqualified for disability under the listed disqualification paragraphs if they could serve with reasonable accommodation.
Official title: To amend title 28, United States Code, to prohibit the exclusion of individuals from service on a Federal jury on account of disability.
Introduced September 2, 2025 by Lateefah Simon · Last progress September 2, 2025