How old should a person have to be in order to serve on a jury?
A person has to be at least 35 years old to be the president of the United States. S/he must be 30 to be a state senator, and 25 to be a member of the House of Representatives. Most states have a minimum age of 25 or 30 to be governor. It should go without saying that even without these minimum age requirements in place, a younger person is not likely to be elected to such positions because most people would feel as though s/he doesn't have the necessary life experience no matter how brilliant and/or educated s/he may be. For example, I didn't figure out until I reached age 38 that I was someday going to die. Before then, I was simply “invincible” and “immortal” as so many young people believe themselves to be.
My recent jury duty summons states that jurors must be at least 18 years old. I believe that this is the norm in most if not all parts of the country. We grant 18-year-olds the power to award enormous amounts of money in civil cases, and to determine if a person is guilty of a major crime that will result in lifetime imprisonment or death, yet it is illegal for that same 18-year-old to celebrate the honorable completion of his/her civic duty by purchasing a wine cooler with 3% alcohol. S/he will have to wait three more years.
Like anything else, the matter is debatable. My personal opinion is that the minimum age to serve on a jury should be 25 years old. Remember, this editorial is being written in the year 2015—not 1955. Times have changed.
If we are going to allow 18-year-olds to serve on a jury, then we should reduce the minimum ages for all of the aforementioned government positions to 18 as well. It will then be up to the voting public to decide if they want to take their chances with an 18-year-old US president or other government official.
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My recent jury duty summons states that jurors must be at least 18 years old. I believe that this is the norm in most if not all parts of the country. We grant 18-year-olds the power to award enormous amounts of money in civil cases, and to determine if a person is guilty of a major crime that will result in lifetime imprisonment or death, yet it is illegal for that same 18-year-old to celebrate the honorable completion of his/her civic duty by purchasing a wine cooler with 3% alcohol. S/he will have to wait three more years.
Like anything else, the matter is debatable. My personal opinion is that the minimum age to serve on a jury should be 25 years old. Remember, this editorial is being written in the year 2015—not 1955. Times have changed.
If we are going to allow 18-year-olds to serve on a jury, then we should reduce the minimum ages for all of the aforementioned government positions to 18 as well. It will then be up to the voting public to decide if they want to take their chances with an 18-year-old US president or other government official.
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