Per CBS:

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico Supreme Court is cautioning trial courts and lawyers that citizens who don’t speak English have the right to serve on juries.
The court issued the admonition in a ruling that upholds an Albuquerque man’s convictions for murder and other crimes in the bludgeoning death of his girlfriend and a subsequent armed robbery and stabbing.
Michael Samora’s appeal argued that his convictions should be reversed because a Bernalillo County judge excused a Spanish-speaking prospective juror who had trouble understanding English.
The Supreme Court says it agrees with that argument but also says Samora’s defense needed to object during the trial but didn’t.
The ruling issued Monday tells judges and lawyers that they must make reasonable efforts to protect the rights of non-English speaking citizens to serve on juries.

As a matter of policy, I would like to hear a good argument in favor of citizens who do not speak English playing a part in English-based trials that decide the fate of other citizens. Does anybody have one?

Having said that, legally the court clearly got the case right. The state’s constitution holds that:

The right of any citizen of the state to vote, hold office, or sit upon juries, shall never be restricted, abridged or impaired on account of religion, race, language or color, or inability to speak, read or write the English or Spanish languages as may be otherwise provided in this Constitution; and the provisions of this section and of section one of this article shall never be amended except upon the vote of the people of this state in an election at which at least three-fourths of the electors in the whole state, and at least two-thirds of those voting in each county of the state, shall vote for such amendment.

What a silly and dangerous rule. Time to utilize that amendment process.

I’m especially curious as to how we have so many adult citizens who cannot speak English, given that speaking English to a reasonable standard — and passing a civics test that is in English — are legal pre-requisites to citizenship, and citizenship is conferred federally. Children born here become citizens without such a test, of course. But children don’t serve on juries, and one would imagine that they might learn the language of the country in which they live between that birth and their turning 18.