Reynaldo Mena
Under California State Law, being an enrolled college student is not a legal reason to be excused from jury duty.
Instead, students have the option of deferring their on-call date. It is possible that the deferred date can be scheduled during an academic break, but that date is just for being on-call. Trials, or even the jury selection process, could be much longer than the academic break. The ideal on-call date would be during Summer break, but if a student receives the first summons during the beginning of the academic year it would not be possible to reschedule that far in advance.
After the first deferment, students must appear to a jury summons in person to appeal for a second deferment. This appearance must happen even if the student is enrolled and must miss valuable class time.
Additionally, deferment to academic breaks/summer can conflict with seasonal internships which allow students to apply concepts they learned in class to prepare themselves for the workforce.
In order to prevent ramifications from missing classes, enrolled college students should be exempt from jury duty. As jury duty is a privilege, students should still have the option of participating but not penalized if it conflicts with their education.
