Some Guy
05-26-2009, 07:18 PM
In Massachusetts we have to serve one day or for the duration the trial if we are empaneled. You report to the courthouse in the morning and watch a video narrated by our Chief Justice, a lawless woman who legislates from the bench. She's right though when she says jury duty is vital to our freedom.
The last time I served I came very close to being empaneled on a civil case the judge said would probably last a month. The plaintiff was a woman of Cape Verdean descent alleging racial and sexual discrimination against her employer, the City of Cambridge, because she didn't get a promotion. Cambridge is a people's republic as bad as Berkeley or Madison. There's no telling how many more qualified white guys they passed over to give her the job in the first place. The case was unlikely to be anything other than ridiculous.
Jury selection was slow. The judge read potential jurors twenty or thirty questions designed to identify interested parties and bigots. We would hold up a numbered card to answer yes to a question and the clerk would note down the numbers. The judge then called us in numerical order and instantly empaneled anyone who had not answered yes to at least one question. She interviewed the rest of us individually in a sidebar with counsel for both sides. People were frantic to get out of serving but we had already been warned that excuses based on personal necessity would fail. My turn came. The judge asked which questions I had answered yes to and I had to say I didn't remember--it had been a couple of hours. I should have taken notes. I did remember one question. She had asked whether we had anything against equal opportunity employment laws, or something like that. I said I thought they were discriminatory and insulting to minorities. The judge said many witnesses would be saying good things about those laws and asked whether I would be able to lay aside my opinions and hear their testimony without prejudice. I said it would definitely affect my judgment of their character. The judge and both lawyers were women, almost certainly liberal women who personally owed a great deal to equal opportunity employment laws. The lawyers smiled at me and the judge said "You're dismissed." No doubt counsel for the plaintiff would have dismissed me if the judge hadn't.
Being a knuckle dragging troglodyte has some benefits.
SG
The last time I served I came very close to being empaneled on a civil case the judge said would probably last a month. The plaintiff was a woman of Cape Verdean descent alleging racial and sexual discrimination against her employer, the City of Cambridge, because she didn't get a promotion. Cambridge is a people's republic as bad as Berkeley or Madison. There's no telling how many more qualified white guys they passed over to give her the job in the first place. The case was unlikely to be anything other than ridiculous.
Jury selection was slow. The judge read potential jurors twenty or thirty questions designed to identify interested parties and bigots. We would hold up a numbered card to answer yes to a question and the clerk would note down the numbers. The judge then called us in numerical order and instantly empaneled anyone who had not answered yes to at least one question. She interviewed the rest of us individually in a sidebar with counsel for both sides. People were frantic to get out of serving but we had already been warned that excuses based on personal necessity would fail. My turn came. The judge asked which questions I had answered yes to and I had to say I didn't remember--it had been a couple of hours. I should have taken notes. I did remember one question. She had asked whether we had anything against equal opportunity employment laws, or something like that. I said I thought they were discriminatory and insulting to minorities. The judge said many witnesses would be saying good things about those laws and asked whether I would be able to lay aside my opinions and hear their testimony without prejudice. I said it would definitely affect my judgment of their character. The judge and both lawyers were women, almost certainly liberal women who personally owed a great deal to equal opportunity employment laws. The lawyers smiled at me and the judge said "You're dismissed." No doubt counsel for the plaintiff would have dismissed me if the judge hadn't.
Being a knuckle dragging troglodyte has some benefits.
SG