By Judge David Larson, Federal Way Municipal Court

There are things in life that we look forward to, but receiving a summons for jury duty is not one of them for most people.

After all, we are asked to disrupt our lives, leave our jobs and give new meaning to “hurry up and wait” as we use every fiber of our patience waiting to be selected for a jury panel.

I give pep talks to prospective jurors about the importance of jury duty and the need for people to willingly and unselfishly give of their time to serve. I tell them that it is just as important as voting. Serving on a jury is one of just four citizen responsibilities that I teach to middle school and high school students.

I espouse the view to all that will listen that a jury of your peers serves as a buffer against centralized power, and that without juries, the power to decide our fate in civil and criminal cases would be too centralized in judges. Although there are many good judges, the power trusted to judges needs to be buffered by juries of our peers. I personally believe that juries are an essential component of freedom and that juries are essential in assuring government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

So, you can imagine the feeling I had when I received my summons for jury duty in the mail (obviously from a different court). Yes, judges are not immune from this very important part of what it means to be a member of a free society. I had the same feeling anyone else would have. Why me? Why now? What about work?

Yet, it became clear that walking the talk was my only option. I could have used a multitude of valid excuses, but how could I ever tell others to take their jury summons seriously if I was not willing to serve myself?

Comedian Norm Crosby once said, “When you go into court, you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren’t smart enough to get out of jury duty.” I pointed out that Norm Crosby was a comedian to make sure that nobody thought the statement was a serious one. However, some people still believe the statement is true. Let’s see if we can challenge that belief.

We all are very familiar with rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights such as free speech, free press, the right to bear arms, and the right to practice or not to practice a religion. To put things in perspective, that same Bill of Rights guarantees us all the right to trial by jury in criminal cases (6th Amendment) and in civil cases (7th Amendment).

What makes your right to trial by jury any different from your right to speak freely? Nothing, except that we speak freely every day and we may never need a jury during our entire lifetime. However, the fact that we may never need a right does not make it less valuable than the rights we exercise on a daily basis.

The right of free speech that we understand as basic to our existence as a free people may be someone else’s speech. We understand implicitly that the defense of that speech is important to our own right to speak freely.

The same is true for jury service. The fact that you may never need a jury does not relieve you of the duty to protect the rights of others to be judged by a jury of their peers. The way you protect the right to trial by jury is simple: Serve as a juror. If we don’t do it for others, who will do it for us? It is our government, and jury duty is just part of our duty to maintain government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The reason the Pledge of Allegiance ends with the words “with liberty and justice for all” is that we cannot have one without the other. We achieve freedom with justice and justice with freedom, but only if we exercise our ownership rights by serving on a jury.

I hope the next time you receive a summons for jury duty that you see it as a symbol of pride, a symbol of justice, and a symbol of freedom.

Judge David Larson of the Federal Way Municipal Court: David.Larson@cityoffederalway.com