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    Order Cancelling Specially Set Trial

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    David Oscar Markus
    1) This order cancelled a jury trial in an automobile accident case that was scheduled to begin on February 7, 2022. 2) The court explained its COVID-19 safety procedures, which required all participants, including jurors, to be fully vaccinated or provide a recent negative test. 3) Defense counsel objected to only allowing vaccinated jurors, so the court cancelled the February trial and rescheduled it for May 9, 2022.

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    Order Cancelling Specially Set Trial

    Uploaded by

    David Oscar Markus
    9K views2 pages
    1) This order cancelled a jury trial in an automobile accident case that was scheduled to begin on February 7, 2022. 2) The court explained its COVID-19 safety procedures, which required all participants, including jurors, to be fully vaccinated or provide a recent negative test. 3) Defense counsel objected to only allowing vaccinated jurors, so the court cancelled the February trial and rescheduled it for May 9, 2022.

    Original Description:

    Judge Scola cancels trial because lawyers will not agree to only vaccinated jurors

    Original Title

    21845320-0--16849

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    1) This order cancelled a jury trial in an automobile accident case that was scheduled to begin on February 7, 2022. 2) The court explained its COVID-19 safety procedures, which required all participants, including jurors, to be fully vaccinated or provide a recent negative test. 3) Defense counsel objected to only allowing vaccinated jurors, so the court cancelled the February trial and rescheduled it for May 9, 2022.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    9K views2 pages

    Order Cancelling Specially Set Trial

    Uploaded by

    David Oscar Markus
    1) This order cancelled a jury trial in an automobile accident case that was scheduled to begin on February 7, 2022. 2) The court explained its COVID-19 safety procedures, which required all participants, including jurors, to be fully vaccinated or provide a recent negative test. 3) Defense counsel objected to only allowing vaccinated jurors, so the court cancelled the February trial and rescheduled it for May 9, 2022.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Case 1:20-cv-25302-RNS Document 82 Entered on FLSD Docket 01/18/2022 Page 1 of 2

    United States District Court


    for the
    Southern District of Florida

    Kevin Collazo, Plaintiff, )


    )
    v. )
    ) Civil Action No. 20-25302-Civ-Scola
    Progressive Select Insurance )
    Company, Defendant. )
    Order Cancelling Specially Set Trial
    This automobile accident case is currently specially set for trial
    beginning on February 7, 2022. On January 18, 2022, during a hearing on
    pre-trial motions, the Court explained its current, COVID-19 trial procedures.
    The Court advised counsel that all parties seeking to participate in the
    forthcoming trial, including counsel and the parties, must be fully vaccinated
    or provide a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 24-hours before the first day
    of trial. Additionally, in light of the recent Omicron surge of COVID-19 cases in
    Miami-Dade County, the Court advised counsel that all members of the
    prospective jury panel must be vaccinated. Counsel for the Plaintiff did not
    object to the Court’s procedures. Defense counsel, claiming they did not want
    to exclude unvaccinated jurors from the trial, objected to the Court’s use of
    only fully vaccinated prospective jurors.
    All of us who participate in the justice system have a shared obligation to
    protect those who enter the courthouse. This grave obligation is particularly
    pronounced as to jurors and witnesses, who are present only under legal
    compulsion. See 28 U.S.C. § 1866(g).
    Just as the Court and the legal profession have an obligation to protect
    those who enter the courthouse, all of us have an obligation to consider the
    safety and well-being of our community. The vast majority of adults in Miami-
    Dade County have met this obligation. Over 94% of Miami-Dade County adult
    residents have been vaccinated. See Miami-Dade County COVID-19 Daily
    Dashboard, dated January 17, 2022, available at
    www.miamidade.gov/information/library/2022-01-17-covid-dashboard.pdf. It
    is the Court’s belief that the vast majority of the unvaccinated adults are
    uninformed and irrational, or—less charitably—selfish and unpatriotic. The
    Court believes that these individuals have given a distorted meaning to the
    COVID-19 vaccine, rather than recognize the vaccine for what it is—an effective
    and safe means of minimizing transmission and illness.
    Case 1:20-cv-25302-RNS Document 82 Entered on FLSD Docket 01/18/2022 Page 2 of 2

    Whether uninformed and irrational or selfish and unpatriotic, no citizen


    is excused from considering their obligation to the health and well-being of
    their community. Else, the health, welfare, and safety of society would be
    subordinated to a substantial minority. Over one-hundred years ago, the
    Supreme Court upheld a State’s compulsory vaccination program and noted
    that nothing in our democracy grants an “absolute right in each person to be
    . . . wholly freed from restraint.” Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Mass., 197 U.S.
    11, 26 (1905). The Court held that individuals may be called upon, and even
    compelled, to protect their community, whether by means of vaccination or by
    conscription. Id. at 29. “[O]rganized society could not exist” otherwise. Id. at 26.
    In a way, the jury is a microcosm of organized society. It “lies at the very
    heart of the jury system” that “those eligible for jury service are to be found in
    every stratum of society.” Thiel v. S. Pac. Co., 328 U.S. 217, 220 (1946). Old
    and young, disabled and immunocompromised, all are called to jury service.
    The Court will not abdicate its duty and obligation to ensure the protection of
    these witnesses and jurors by exposing them to risks, particularly when those
    risks are heightened by the Omicron variant. While the Court does not believe
    that excluding unvaccinated jurors in the middle of a pandemic is legally
    impermissible, it nonetheless does not want to create an appellate issue.
    The specially-set jury trial beginning on February 7, 2022 is cancelled.
    Accordingly, this action is reset for trial during the two-week trial period
    beginning on May 9, 2022. Calendar call with be held at 9:00 a.m. on the
    preceding Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States
    Courthouse, 400 N. Miami Avenue, Courtroom 12-3, Miami, Florida.

    Done and ordered in Miami, Florida, on January 18, 2022.

    ________________________________
    Robert N. Scola, Jr.
    United States District Judge

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