A Note on My Democratic Duties

Over the week of March 5-9, I had to take part in my “Democratic Duty” and report for jury selection.

The theory is if your peers cannot try you, how can you be assured of a free and fair trial? If a free trial is not possible, you do not live in a democratic society. So, in order to ensure that there is a full pool of jury members, jury duty selection is mandatory for all citizens.

Rather than go into the pitfalls of the theory, I would like to focus on the horrible manner in which it is implemented.

1. Employers are not required to pay employees who are called to jury duty.
2. Although jury duty is random, lawyers are allowed to excuse all and every potential juror from a pool.
3. If you are not selected for one case, you are sent back to the pool to wait for another case, which may or may not appear.
4. There might not be another case, but congrats if you weren’t chosen, you weren’t paid for your time anyway.
5. Your prize, no pay, and a three-year “Get out of jury duty selection” pass.

Kudos you savages, kudos.

By the way, lawyers are not called for jury selection.