Reading Room Document

Title 2, U.S. Code, Section 130(b) [opinion re: jury duty requirements for legislative staff]

In this memo, the OLC considered two issues: 1) whether the Department of Justice could respond to a formal request from a financial clerk of the Office of the Secretary of the Senate on the jury duty requirements for one of his employees under 2 U.S.C. § 130(b) and 2) whether a member of Congress may refuse to permit their employees to serve as jurors under 2 U.S.C. § 130(b). In response to the first issue, the OLC concluded that it was authorized to give advice only to executive, not legislative, officials per 28 U.S.C. §§ 511-12. As for the second issue, the OLC reasoned that § 130(b) did not provide for an exemption or exception from jury service for any employee of Congress. Additionally, the OLC raised circumstances where a legislative employee could be exempted from jury service––if the person seeking exemption was a “public officer” or someone “directly appointed by a person elected to public office.” Here, the OLC concluded that the position of a financial clerk in the Office of the Secretary of the Senate would likely not fall under this exemption, since the clerk probably would not be a public officer.

March 15, 1974