Quote Quoting Taxing Matters
View Post

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that under the 14th Amendment the state need not provide a jury in a criminal prosecution if the maximum possible penalty for the offense is six months or less in jail/prison. Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968). Since most traffic offenses do not involve much, if any, jail time the state is not required under the Constitution to provide a jury for such offenses and most states do not do that, though a few do. The primary reason for that is that jury trials take more time and cost more, and citizens dislike jury duty enough as it is already without having to sit on a traffic case (which most people, I think, would feel is a complete waste of their time).
That defeats the entire purpose of a jury trial. Our founding fathers knew that magistrates are payed by the state and are biased to the state, and generally answer to the state and since its SOO EASY to get a traffic citation, this is exactly what trial by jury is designed to counteract and give relief from fear of excessive persecution. Perhaps if the state would pay them accordingly and fairly, then this might not be as big an issue. and you can;t even volunteer for it. I personally LOVE Jury duty, the only thing I didn't like was having to eat $10 a day when I normally make 80-100.