January 21: Women on Juries

On this date in History ..... 1975:

The Supreme Court rules in Taylor vs. Louisiana that women cannot be excluded from jury duty.

Taylor, who had been charged with kidnapping, argued that in the territory of his trial, women made up 53% of the eligible jurors, but there were no women on his jury and were not even any women in the 175 person jury pool. His lawyer argued this did not represent a proper and “fair cross section of the community” that is “essential to the 6^th Amendment’s guarantee of an impartial jury.” 

.