The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Florida’s use of a six-person jury instead of one consisting of 12 people.

Without comment, the justices agreed Monday to consider the legal battle of Hamed Kian v. State of Florida. A six-person jury convicted Kian of practicing as a chiropractor without a license. He was sentenced to more than a year in prison followed by probation.

Kian and his lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court after the appeals court affirmed the decision, arguing that an 1898 case, Thompson v. Utah, affirmed that the original meaning of “jury” was understood under common law to constitute 12 people, “neither more nor less.”

Florida law says that for capital cases, 12 people must be on a jury. But for other criminal cases, a jury should consist of six people.

Meanwhile, the state of Florida had told the high court in a filing not to hear the dispute.

The state argued that the justices, in a 1970 case, held that Florida’s use of a six-member jury was lawful, as the framers did not dictate a precise number of people that a jury must have.

More than 5,000 criminal convictions using the six-member jury are on appeal, the state’s filing said.

It took four justices to vote in favor of weighing the dispute for it to be granted.

Oral arguments will take place sometime during the court’s next term, which runs from October 2026 through June 2027.

Connecticut, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah and Arizona also allow for six-member juries in non-death penalty cases.

A decision against Florida could impact those state laws, too.

The justices had declined to hear this issue before in 2024. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch had dissented from the court’s decision not to weigh the six-member jury question at that time.

“Florida does what the Constitution forbids because of us,” Justice Gorsuch wrote.