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women on juries
Dec. 19th, 2009 12:32 amI was reading a novel last night in which someone said "if it ever comes to pass that women serve on juries", and I asked ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
katybeth if she knew when that was, in the U.S. Same time as voting, per state? She found a few articles, which I'm going to try to re-find. Short version: actually, a lot later than 1920, I had no idea.
In Washington:
1883 - women voting and on juries in Washington Territory.
1887 - both rights abrogated by state court.
1888 - voting right, but not jury, restored by state legistature.
Informative Women Lawyers' Journal article says that a number of states did tie jury service to voting, so:
1914 - women get the vote, and jury service, in Nevada.
1918 - ditto Michigan.
1920 - ditto DE, IN, IA, KY, OH, PA, with the 19th Amendment.
But also a number of states ended jury exclusion separately (not sure in all cases whether before or after the right to vote):
1911 - Washington
1912 - Kansas
1917 - California
1921 - AR, LA, ME, MI, NJ, ND, OR, WI.
1927 - D.C. At this time "In Utah women are eligible jurors but are exempt and hence not called for service."
Time passes.
1949 - women allowed on Florida juries.
1950 - Massachusetts: "the thirty-ninth state to make women eligible for jury service, one of twenty-eight states that allowed women an exemption based on gender, and the only state to include a specific provision designed to protect women from potentially embarrassing testimony." [www]
1953 - Georgia. [www]
1966 - Alabama, the last state to allow women on juries. [NPR quiz incl. noxious Javascript resize]
Being allowed on juries didn't mean equal service, and I don't mean to single out Florida here because it sounds like a lot of states had problems:
1961 - Florida system where men all serve but women have to opt in is allowed (unanimously) by the Supreme Court. "[W]oman is still regarded as the center of home and family life". [www]
1975 - Supreme Court "effectively overrules" 1961 decision. [www]
1979 - Supreme Court disallows automatic exemption (presumably we're talking voluntary by this point?) for women.
1994 - Supreme Court rules that women can't be systematically excluded from a jury through peremptory challenge. [www]
What are we still missing?
Also: Ritter, "Jury Service and Women's Citizenship before and after the Nineteenth Amendment"
katybeth if she knew when that was, in the U.S. Same time as voting, per state? She found a few articles, which I'm going to try to re-find. Short version: actually, a lot later than 1920, I had no idea.In Washington:
1883 - women voting and on juries in Washington Territory.
1887 - both rights abrogated by state court.
1888 - voting right, but not jury, restored by state legistature.
Informative Women Lawyers' Journal article says that a number of states did tie jury service to voting, so:
1914 - women get the vote, and jury service, in Nevada.
1918 - ditto Michigan.
1920 - ditto DE, IN, IA, KY, OH, PA, with the 19th Amendment.
But also a number of states ended jury exclusion separately (not sure in all cases whether before or after the right to vote):
1911 - Washington
1912 - Kansas
1917 - California
1921 - AR, LA, ME, MI, NJ, ND, OR, WI.
1927 - D.C. At this time "In Utah women are eligible jurors but are exempt and hence not called for service."
Time passes.
1949 - women allowed on Florida juries.
1950 - Massachusetts: "the thirty-ninth state to make women eligible for jury service, one of twenty-eight states that allowed women an exemption based on gender, and the only state to include a specific provision designed to protect women from potentially embarrassing testimony." [www]
1953 - Georgia. [www]
1966 - Alabama, the last state to allow women on juries. [NPR quiz incl. noxious Javascript resize]
Being allowed on juries didn't mean equal service, and I don't mean to single out Florida here because it sounds like a lot of states had problems:
1961 - Florida system where men all serve but women have to opt in is allowed (unanimously) by the Supreme Court. "[W]oman is still regarded as the center of home and family life". [www]
1975 - Supreme Court "effectively overrules" 1961 decision. [www]
1979 - Supreme Court disallows automatic exemption (presumably we're talking voluntary by this point?) for women.
1994 - Supreme Court rules that women can't be systematically excluded from a jury through peremptory challenge. [www]
What are we still missing?
Also: Ritter, "Jury Service and Women's Citizenship before and after the Nineteenth Amendment"
