A Ballotpedia survey of all 50 state constitutions and administrative procedure acts (APAs) revealed that no state constitutions or APAs provide for juries to participate in agency adjudication hearings, as of August 2020. Thus, hearing officers or other agency officials preside over and decide the outcome of adjudications instead of people from the community.
Adjudication proceedings include agency determinations outside of the rulemaking process that aim to resolve disputes between either agencies and private parties or between two private parties. The adjudication process results in the issuance of an adjudicative order, which serves to settle the dispute and, in some cases, may set agency policy.
Because state administrative agencies are unlike traditional state courts, the same rules do not always apply. The absence of jury participation is a way agency adjudication differs from the traditional judicial process that state courts follow.
Understanding adjudication procedures provides insight into due process procedural rights of citizens at the state level. Procedural rights is one of the five pillars key to understanding the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state.
To learn more about Ballotpedia’s survey related to procedural rights, see here:
Procedural rights: States that provide for juries to participate in agency adjudication hearings
Want to go further? Learn more about the five pillars of the administrative state here: Administrative state
Additional reading:
- Adjudication (administrative state)
- Five pillars of the administrative state: a 50-state survey
- State administrative procedure acts
- State constitutions
