California is poised to allow non-citizens sit on juries, and thus hold judgment over American citizens. The bill, AB1401, has already passed the state Assembly, and of the writing of this post, is in the hands of the state Senate. Both legislative housed have a Democratic supermajority.
To a non-Citizen, American law is a foreign law, that is conducted quite differently in most of the world. While this bill is targeted towards Mexicans, the problem with this bill can easily be illustrated with white Europeans. The legal framework of the United States, particularly the Common Law system, is shared by only a few countries from the Anglo-sphere, the hybrid system in Louisiana notwithstanding. The rest of the world works on very different systems of law, and people for whom the American law system is alien can not be expected to be competent to serve on American juries, judging cases based on American law.
Similarly, an American would not be competent to serve on another country’s jury (for those countries that have juries), even in other Anglo-sphere nations where the Common Law still stands strong.
