Official J.A.I.L. Text:
The official wording of J.A.I.L. in all
fifty states shall follow substantially the textual wording of that
of California from which it sprang, and shall not radically depart from
its text which is as follows:
Judicial Accountability Initiative Law (J.A.I.L.)
(Updated Changes of California Initiative as
of 4/1/01)
(a) Preamble. We, the People of California
find that the doctrine of judicial immunity has been greatly abused; and
when judges abuse their power, the people are obliged - it is their duty
- to correct that injury, for the benefit of themselves and their posterity.
In order to ensure judicial accountability and domestic tranquility, we
hereby amend Article I of our Constitution with these provisions, which
shall be known as "The Judicial Accountability Amendment."
(b) Definitions. For purposes of this amendment:
The term "blocking" shall mean any act that impedes
the lawful conclusion of a case, to include unreasonable delay and willful
rendering of a void judgment or order.
The term "judge" shall mean justice, judge, magistrate,
commissioner, judge pro tem, private judge, judicial mediator, arbitrator
and referee, and every person shielded by judicial immunity.
The term "Juror" shall mean a Special Grand Juror.
The term "seat" shall mean a situs and facility
that is suitable for usage by the Jury.
The term "strike" shall mean an adverse immunity
decision.
Where appropriate, the singular shall include
the plural.
(c) Immunity. Notwithstanding common law
or any other provision to the contrary, no immunities shall be extended
to any judge of this State except as is specifically set forth in this
Amendment. Preserving the purpose of protecting judges from frivolous and
harassing actions, no immunity shielding a judge shall be construed to
extend to any deliberate violation of law, fraud or conspiracy, intentional
violation of due process of law, deliberate disregard of material facts,
judicial acts without jurisdiction, blocking of a lawful conclusion of
a case, or any deliberate violation of the Constitutions of California
or the United States.
(d) Special Grand Juries. There are
hereby created within this State three twenty-five member Special Grand
Juries with statewide jurisdiction having power to judge both law and fact.
This body shall exist independent of statutes governing county grand
juries. Their responsibility shall be limited to determining, on an objective
standard, whether a civil suit against a judge would be frivolous and harassing,
or fall within the exclusions of immunity as set forth herein, and whether
there is probable cause of criminal conduct by the judge complained of.
(e) Professional Counsel. Each Special
Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to retain non-governmental advisors,
special prosecutors, and investigators, as needed, who shall serve no longer
than one year, after which term said officers shall be ineligible. Notwithstanding
the one year, a special prosecutor may be retained to prosecute current
cases in which they are involved through all appeals and any complaints
for judicial misconduct.
(f) Establishment of Special Grand Jury
Seats. Within ninety days following the ratification of this Amendment,
the Legislature shall provide a seat for each Special Grand Jury. No seat
shall be located within a mile of any judicial body, and each seat shall
be reasonably placed proportionately according to population throughout
the State. Should the Legislature fail to so act within ninety days, its
members shall permanently forfeit their salaries and per diem pay, beginning
on the ninety-first day, until such time that it abides by the terms of
this (f) section.
(g) Annual Funding. The Legislature
shall cause to be deducted two and nine-tenths percent from the gross judicial
salaries of all judges, which amount shall be deposited regularly into
the exclusive trust account created by this Amendment in paragraph (k)
for its operational expenses, together with filing fees under paragraph
(h), surcharges under paragraph (i), forfeited benefits of disciplined
judges under paragraph (q), and fines imposed under paragraph (r).
(h) Filing Fees. Attorneys representing
a party filing a civil complaint or answer before the Special Grand Jury,
shall, at the time of filing, pay a fee equal to the filing fee due in
a civil appeal to the State Supreme Court. Individuals filing a civil complaint
or answer before the Special Grand Jury in their own behalf as a matter
of right, shall, at the time of filing, pay a fee of fifty dollars, or
file a declaration, which shall remain confidential, stating they are impoverished
and unable to pay and/or object to such fee.
(i) Surcharges. Should this Amendment
lack sufficient funding through its fines, fees, and forfeitures (including
deductions in paragraph (g)), the Legislature shall impose appropriate
surcharges upon the civil court filing fees of corporate litigants as necessary
to make this Amendment self-supporting.
(j) Compensation of Jurors. Each
Juror shall receive a salary commensurate to a Superior Court judge prorated
according to the number of days actually served.
(k) Annual Budget. The Special Grand
Juries shall have an annual operational budget commensurate to double the
combined salaries of the seventy-five Jurors serving full time, which sum
shall be initially deposited by the Legislature into an exclusive trust
account to be annually administered by the State Controller. Should the
trust balance, within any budget year, drop to less than an amount equivalent
to the annual gross salaries of fifty Superior Court judges, the State
Controller shall so notify the Legislature which shall replenish the account,
prorated based on the actual average expenditures during the budget year.
Should the trust balance in any subsequent year exceed the annual operational
budget at the beginning of a new budget year, the State Controller shall
return such excess to the state treasury.
(l) Jurisdiction. Each
Special Grand Jury shall have exclusive power to establish rules assuring
their attendance, to provide internal discipline, and to remove any of
its members on grounds of misconduct. The Special Grand Jury shall immediately
assign a docket number to each complaint brought before it, unless such
case is transferred to another Special Grand Jury to achieve caseload balance.
A transfer shall not prejudice a docketing deadline. The Special Grand
Jury first docketing a complaint shall have sole jurisdiction of the case.
Except as provided in paragraphs (s) and (w), no complaint of misconduct
shall be considered by any Special Grand Jury unless the complainant shall
have first attempted to exhaust all judicial remedies available in this
State within the immediately preceding six-month period. Such six-month
period, however, shall not commence in complaints of prior fraud or blocking
of a lawful conclusion until after the date the Special Grand Juries become
functional. This provision applies remedially and retroactively. Should
the complainant opt to proceed to the United States Supreme Court, such
six-month period shall commence upon the disposition by that Court.
(m) Qualifications of Jurors. A Juror
shall have attained to the age of thirty years, and have been nine years
a citizen of the United States, and have been an inhabitant of California
for two years immediately prior to having his/her name drawn. Those not
eligible for Special Grand Jury service shall include elected and appointed
officials, members of the State Bar, judges (active or retired), judicial,
prosecutorial and law enforcement personnel, without other exclusion except
previous adjudication of mental incapacity, imprisonment, or parole from
a conviction of a felonious crime against persons.
(n) Selection of Jurors. The Jurors
shall serve without compulsion and shall be drawn by public lot by the
Secretary of State from names on the voters rolls and any citizen submitting
his/her name to the Secretary of State for such drawing.
(o) Service of Jurors. Excluding
the establishment of the initial Special Grand Juries, each Juror shall
serve one year. No Juror shall serve more than once. On the first day of
each month, two persons shall be rotated off each Special Grand Jury and
new Citizens seated, except in January it shall be three. Vacancies shall
be filled on the first of the following month in addition to the Jurors
regularly rotated, and the Juror chosen to fill a vacancy shall complete
only the remainder of the term of the Juror replaced.
(p) Procedures. The Special Grand
Jury shall serve a copy of the filed complaint upon the subject judge and
notice to the complainant of such service. The judge shall have twenty
days to serve and file an answer. The complainant shall have fifteen days
to reply to the judge's answer. (Upon timely request, the Special Grand
Jury may provide for extensions for good cause.) The Special Grand Jury
shall have power to subpoena witnesses, documents, and other tangible evidence,
and to examine witnesses under oath. Each Special Grand Jury shall determine
the causes properly before it with their reasoned findings in writing within
one hundred twenty (120) calendar days, serving on all parties their decision
on whether immunity shall be barred as a defense to any civil action that
may thereafter be pursued against the judge. A rehearing may be requested
of the Special Grand Jury within fifteen days with service upon the opposition.
Fifteen days shall be allowed to reply thereto. Thereafter, the Special
Grand Jury shall render final determination within thirty days. All allegations
of the complaint shall be liberally construed in favor of the complainant.
The Jurors shall keep in mind, in making their decisions, that they are
entrusted by the People of this State with the duty of restoring a perception
of justice and accountability of the judiciary, and are not to be swayed
by artful presentation by the judge. They shall avoid all influence by
judicial and government entities. The statute of limitations on any civil
suit brought pursuant to this Amendment against a State judge shall not
commence until the rendering of a final decision by the Special Grand Jury.
Special Grand Jury files shall always remain public record following their
final determination. A majority of thirteen shall determine any matter.
(q) Removal. Whenever any judge has
received three strikes, the judge shall be permanently removed from office,
and thereafter shall not serve in any State judicial office, including
that of private judge. Judicial retirement for such removed judge shall
not exceed one-half of the benefits to which such person would have otherwise
been entitled. Retirement shall not avert third strike penalties.
(r) Indictment. Should the Special
Grand Jury also find probable cause of criminal conduct on the part of
any judge against whom a complaint is docketed, it shall have the power
to indict such judge except where double jeopardy attaches. The Special
Grand Jury shall, without voir dire beyond personal relationship, cause
to be impaneled twelve special trial jurors, plus alternates, which trial
jurors shall be instructed that they have power to judge both law and fact.
The Special Grand Jury shall also select a non-governmental special prosecutor
and a judge with no more than four years on the bench from a county other
than that of the defendant judge. The trial jury shall be selected from
the same pool of jury candidates as any regular jury. The special prosecutor
shall thereafter prosecute the cause to a conclusion, having all the powers
of any other prosecutor within this State. Upon conviction, the special
trial jury shall have exclusive power of sentencing (limited to incarceration,
fines and/or community service), which shall be derived by an average of
the sentences of the trial jurors.
(s) Criminal Procedures. In addition
to any other provisions of this Amendment, a complaint for criminal conduct
of a judge may be brought directly to the Special Grand Jury upon all the
following prerequisites:
(1) an affidavit of criminal conduct
has been lodged with the appropriate prosecutorial entity within ninety
(90) days of the commission of the alleged conduct;
(2) the prosecutor declines to prosecute, or one
hundred twenty (120) days has passed following the lodging of such affidavit
and prosecution has not commenced;
(3) an indictment, if sought, has not been specifically
declined on the merits by a county Grand Jury; and
(4) the criminal statute of limitations has not
run. Any criminal conviction (including a plea bargain) under any judicial
process shall constitute a strike.
(t) Public Indemnification. No
judge complained of, or sued civilly by a complainant pursuant to this
Amendment, shall be defended at public expense or by any elected or appointed
public counsel, nor shall any judge be reimbursed from public funds for
any losses sustained under this Amendment.
(u) Enforcement. No person exercising
strict enforcement of the findings of a Special Grand Jury shall be held
liable civilly, criminally, or in contempt.
(v) Redress. The provisions of this
Amendment are in addition to other redress that may exist and are not mutually
exclusive.
(w) Challenges to Amendment. No judge
under the jurisdiction of the Special Grand Jury, or potentially affected
by the outcome of a challenge to this Amendment, shall have any jurisdiction
to sit in judgment of such challenge. Such pretended adjudication shall
be null and void for all purposes and a complaint for such misconduct may
be brought at any time, without charge, before the Special Grand Jury by
class-action, or by any adversely affected person.
(x) Preeminence. Preeminence
shall be given to this Amendment in any case of conflicts with statute,
case law, common law, or constitutional provision. The foreperson of each
Special Grand Jury shall read, or cause to be read, this Amendment to the
respective Jurors semi-annually during the first week of business in January
and July. Should any part of this Amendment be determined unconstitutional,
the remainder shall remain in full force and effect as though no challenge
thereto existed.
* * *
AMENDMENTS TO CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS:
This Constitution and By-Laws shall go
through a flexible probationary period through November, 2001 within which
period it may be amended without formality. Thereafter, the first two sentences
of this amendment section shall be deleted. This National J.A.I.L. Constitution
and By-Laws may be amended by concurrence of two-thirds vote of the Associate
Commanders-In-Chief.
End of Constitution & By-Laws –
The above is proposed by Ronald Branson as the
Constitution and By-Laws for J.A.I.L. from a national perspective.
It is now open for discussion, comments, additions
and suggestions by the JAILers. Have we forgotten anything that
we should have included in our National By-Laws?
