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Alignment is each justice's general judicial philosophy as commonly described, not a party. Justices don't belong to parties, and they don't always vote with their bloc.
Alignment is each justice's general judicial philosophy as commonly described, not a party. Justices don't belong to parties, and they don't always vote with their bloc.
No. 25-6623 · October Term 2026
Do the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee a defendant charged with a serious felony the right to a 12-person jury trial?
Florida charged Hamed Kian with five counts of practicing chiropractic medicine with a suspended license—a serious felony under Florida law. Under Florida statute, only capital cases require a 12-person jury; all other criminal cases require just six jurors. Consistent with that law, a six-person jury tried Kian and convicted him on all five counts. The trial court sentenced him to a year and a day in prison on three counts, to run concurrently, followed by five years of probation on the remaining two counts, to run consecutively to each other. Kian argued that trying him before a six-person jury violated his Sixth Amendment right to a 12-person jury for a serious criminal charge. Kian appealed to the Fourth District Court of Appeal of Florida, which affirmed his convictions and sentences without a written opinion on October 16, 2025. Because the Florida Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to review district court decisions issued without a written opinion, Kian petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court directly.
From Oyez.