Practicing Deliberation with Others: Legislative Jury

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Draft and reach unanimous agreement on four distinct policy options addressing a civic issue within a timed deliberation.

Use it when: Use when a group needs to move from broad open debate into concrete policy formulation and practice reaching consensus across divergent views.

Skip it when: Skip when the group has unaddressed personal conflicts, lacks basic psychological safety, or needs rapid ideation rather than sustained compromise.

Group arrangement: Small groups of 4 to 8 participants. Form groups of 6 to 8 when possible; use groups of 4 or 5 when attendance requires it (for example, 9 divides into 4 and 5; 17 divides into 6, 6, and 5).

Timing: Source specifies a 60-minute duration across 5 phases (5 + 5 + 30 + 10 + 10 minutes).

Materials and tools

• One printed Legislative Jury Briefing Handout per participant
• One large flip chart pad and 2 markers per small group
• Timer visible to the room
• One main room flip chart and marker for whole-group compilation

Before participants arrive

1. Select a specific civic topic relevant to your community (for example, municipal public transit funding).
2. Print copies of the Legislative Jury Briefing Handout for each participant, filling in the chosen civic topic.
3. Set up small-group tables with a flip chart pad and markers for each group.

Say this to open

Welcome to our Legislative Jury Session. In 24 US states, citizens propose ballot initiatives directly, but these measures often lack prior collaborative review. Today, each small group acts as a randomly selected citizen legislative jury. Your jury must draft four distinct ballot initiatives on our chosen civic issue. The four options must offer genuine alternatives, ranging from minimal intervention to extensive regulation. Your entire table must unanimously agree on all four options before time expires. Let us look at the briefing sheet.

How to run it

1. Introduce Legislative Juries and Task 10 minutes

   Read the opening script within the first two minutes. Hand out the briefing sheet. Review the core rules detailed on the sheet, highlighting that each table must elect a foreperson and formulate four contrasting options across the policy spectrum rather than minor variations of one approach. Answer brief clarifying questions about the selected community topic.

2. Deliberate in Small Groups 30 minutes

   Small groups convene at their tables and elect their foreperson. Participants suggest policy approaches, debate trade-offs, and draft language for four distinct ballot initiatives. The foreperson records draft versions on the group flip chart. Deliberations continue until all members give unanimous verbal assent to the final four proposals. Provide verbal time warnings at 15 minutes and 5 minutes remaining.

3. Share Policy Options Across Groups 10 minutes

   Call the room back together. Invite the foreperson or a chosen spokesperson from each table to read their four ballot initiatives. Limit each table to 2 minutes of speaking time. Record a concise summary of each proposal on the main room flip chart so all options remain visible side by side.

4. Debrief Whole Group 10 minutes

   Guide a whole-room debrief using the recorded proposals. Invite two or three participants to respond to each debrief question: Where is there overlap across the juries? Where are the outlier or radical proposals? How did the requirement to submit four distinct options affect your table's ability to reach consensus?

Debrief questions

• Where is there overlap across the juries, and where are the outlier or radical proposals?
• How did the requirement to present four contrasting options change your discussion compared to debating a single preferred policy?
• What made reaching unanimous consent on the full package of four options easy or difficult?

Finished output: Each small group produces a flip chart sheet listing four unanimously approved, contrasting ballot initiative proposals on the assigned civic topic.

Remote

Run in video meeting software with breakout rooms of 4 to 8 participants. Provide a link to an online shared document containing the briefing sheet and designated sections for each jury. Each breakout room selects a foreperson to manage speaking turns and record the four options in the shared document. In Step 3, bring groups back to the main room and screen-share the consolidated document while spokespersons present.

Hybrid

Keep in-person attendees together at tables of 4 to 8, and group remote attendees into dedicated virtual breakout rooms of 4 to 8. Both in-person and remote juries record their final four proposals directly into a shared digital document so all participants can view every group's output during the Step 3 presentations and Step 4 debrief.

Access and participation choices

• Participants may opt to serve as the group scribe or timekeeper instead of speaking during room-level presentations.
• Any participant may decline to advocate personal political beliefs and deliberate strictly from an assigned analytical perspective or pass on any given turn.

If the session gets stuck

A group deadlocks because members refuse to agree on extreme or opposing proposals.

Remind the jury that approving an initiative for the ballot does not mean endorsing it personally. Their mandate is to provide the voting public with four distinct, credible choices.

One or two vocal participants dominate the table deliberation.

Intervene briefly and instruct the foreperson to run a structured go-around where every member offers one proposal idea before anyone speaks twice.

Terms used here

• Ballot Initiative: A proposed law or statute placed directly on an election ballot for voters to approve or reject.
• Legislative Jury: A mock panel of randomly selected citizens tasked with reviewing, deliberating, and refining policy options before they reach a general vote.