WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states may use six-person juries in criminal cases instead of 12-person juries. The Court will hear oral arguments on this question in the fall.

The case involves Hamed Kian, a 45-year-old chiropractor who was convicted by a six-person jury in Florida for practicing with a suspended license. Kian argues that being tried by a six-person jury violates his constitutional rights.

Kian's medical license was suspended after three female patients reported inappropriate contact. Prosecutors sought an indictment after finding evidence that Kian continued to treat patients at his Jupiter, Florida, office after his license suspension. Florida uses six-person juries for all criminal cases that do not involve the death penalty.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury but does not explicitly specify jury size. Kian's legal filing contends that the word jury exclusively referred to a 12-person body when the Sixth Amendment was adopted in 1791. The Court ruled approximately 100 years after 1791 that criminal juries must consist of 12 members.

In 1970, the Court ruled 7-1 in a Florida case that the Constitution does not require juries to have exactly 12 members. Justice Thurgood Marshall was the only justice to dissent from that 1970 ruling. The Court also ruled in 2020 that criminal juries must be unanimous, overturning a 1972 decision that allowed for non-unanimous convictions in Louisiana and Oregon. The Court has recently placed renewed emphasis on the original understanding of the Constitution.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier submitted a filing asking the Court to uphold Kian's conviction. Uthmeier argued that the 1970 precedent regarding jury size was correctly decided. Uthmeier wrote in the filing, "Overruling it also would imperil thousands of criminal convictions in Florida and five other states that for more than 50 years have relied on its rule." Arizona, Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Utah are among the states that conduct some criminal trials with six-member juries.