I recent got called for jury duty (again, fourth time in 8 years, three different courts). This time, it’s for the county I live in (first time), Medina Co., TX. They sent me a “Juror Questionnaire” to fill out and hand in when I go in for my summons date.
The second question simple asks “Race (required by State Law):”. I want to answer “human”.
Now, I find this question shouldn’t really be relevant. I know that they want the obvious answer (“white”).
But after working as an enumerator for the Census in 2010, I know that the answer could be nearly anything. The census allowed people to self-identify. Even if your skin was darkest ebony, you were free to answer “white”. They also had a list of then-defined “races”, which listed nearly all of the southeast Asian countries each as a different “race”.
Hispanics were discouraged from using that term; they were asked to put Mexican, Salvadoran, etc. Many I interviewed went with “white”.
And whites weren’t really offered options. Just white. No German, Scottish, Russian, Belarusian, etc.
So, to my question: if I answer “human”, will they disqualify me for being a smartass? Or worse, find me in contempt of court?
It is possible that you would open yourself up to a charge of perjury, because as you’ve demonstrated that you know what is meant by the question, you know what answer you ought to give, but you’re providing a misleading answer because you have a grievance with the question itself. This appears to be a class A misdemeanor in Texas, punishable by up to a year in jail and $4,000 fine.
But let’s get real. The courts used to people being too smart for their own good, thinking they can outwit them, either to get away with something or get out of jury service. They are highly unlikely to arrest you, and if you get to voir dire, one way or another the judge will get this straightened out. The probability that you’d be excused from jury service over this is probably less than zero.
I get called for jury service in DC about every year, sometimes every two years, and you’d probably just get a tongue-lashing from a judge here for doing something like this. But I’m not from Texas, I don’t know what the judges are like down there, etc.
But one last point: jury service is a pain, but it is a really big deal. Even for small criminal matters, the difference between a conviction and an acquittal can have a huge impact on a person’s life. A conviction makes it much harder to do basic things like get and hold a job, and therefore provide for kids and whatnot.
And discrimination in jury selection is a big deal, too. It very likely leads to some criminals going free, and some innocent people going to prison. You may not see the logic, but collecting information on the demographic makeup of jurors is probably very important to someone fighting an important case about someone’s freedom or punishment.
I live in So. Ark., I have been on the call list for jury duty for 1 month, every time I 've appeared to serve, I have been sent home,because alphabetically they haven’t got to the 1st. letter of my last name. How can a jury be impartial and well represented if they go alphabetically. Also they have never asked my race. I assume they can see that, though. I know people who are racially mixed or undetetmined, what do they say on a form? It is all so confusing.
Assuming there isn’t a list to select from, I’d leave it blank or better write “mixed”. It doesn’t sound like a wise-ass answer and it’s certainly true if you look back far enough.
IANAL but I suspect the “required by state law” statement means they are required to ask not necessarily that you are required to answer.
You may feel that the question isn’t relevant, but in point of fact it is highly relevant. Like it or not, socially determined “race” is very important in the US, so it’s relevant to ask about it in matters of justice.
The census may allow you to self identify with regards to “race,” but the fact of the matter is that your race is determined by society regardless of how you self identify. For example, my niece and nephew are biracial (white mother and black father) with an intermediate skin tone. Despite this they are identified in US society as black (and that’s how they self identify). But even if they self identified as white they would still be identified as black by society.
Really what they want to know is how society identifies you, not your personal opinions about racial classifications. And the objective is a beneficial one: to try to avoid bias in the criminal justice system. You have to consider whether a quixotic (and in this case trivial) fight against racial classification outweighs that objective.
Check out Miller-El v. Dretke for some background on racial bias in jury selection in Texas, and why it might be important for the court to have this information.
They must do it differently in my county. I just got a juror summons with the questionnaire but it’s for the whole next year. Apparently, I’ll get a letter about a week before a trial, if there is one, notifying me when to report. I am on for this year also but haven’t had to report. I did get a letter earlier but the trial was canceled.
Can an American be compelled to declare what race they are? What if the OP were to write “decline to answer” instead of the somewhat smart-alecky response he is suggesting? IANAL, but I sure hope the answer to my question is “NO!”
Another vote here for “don’t put in a smartass answer.” Leave it blank, or enter something like “I choose to not answer.”
Also, re: Hispanics: if you worked on the Census, then you’ll recall that “Hispanic” isn’t considered a race, it’s an ethnicity / ethnic background. A demographic questionnaire that’s properly written will ask about Hispanic origin as a separate question.
I never thought of “human” as particularly smart-alecky. It’s what I always put on the census.
One hockey announcer called Jean Beliveau “a credit to his race”. I really don’t know how to answer the question. A border patrolman in MS once came on the bus my brother and I were traveling on and asked to see my brother’s ID. Obviously, he thought my brother was swarthy enough to be a wetback. I wonder what would have happened if he didn’t have any.
Would they be more or less likely to summon you for jury duty if you were of a race that they didn’t have enough of? If blacks were 15% of a county, and they were summoning 100 people, would they check that at least 15 of them were black? I am told that an attorney cannot use his preemptory challenges to weight the jury towards a race, but I am not sure how it works before voir dire starts.
I have never served on a jury, but I have been called. I don’t recollect if they asked me my race at any point - if they did, I would put down “white” on the assumption that they already had lots of whites and so I might not have to serve.
With a skewed distribution, there is a greater chance that larger group will be under-represented compared to the mean than the smaller group will. This is obvious as the median will be above the mean. For your specific question, assuming independence in the drawing from 15% type A, 85% type B, there is a 45.7% chance of getting 14 or fewer type A, a 43.2% chance of getting 16 or more and 11.1% exactly 15.
When we reported (about 50 of us), they gave us our 1st day’s salary ($6!), and we began the voir dire.
The first defendant didn’t appear, so the judge issued a warrent and revokation of their bail.
The second defendant didn’t appear, so the judge issued a warrent and revokation of their bail.
The third defendant didn’t appear, so the judge issued a warrent and revokation of their bail.
There were no more cases, so the judge thanked us all for our service, made sure we got our “insulting amount of pay” (her words), and dismissed us. My total jury duty time (from the judge’s entrance to her dismissing us) was about 25 minutes. (My drive time to the county courthouse was 30 minutes.)