Michigan Supreme Court bans affirmative action for juries

[Thom Little]

Judges in Michigan cannot use a person's race, gender, religion or nationality to select jurors under a new rule approved by the Michigan Supreme Court. The order, approved on a 4-3 vote, was released Friday.

It follows efforts by some Wayne County judges to have more racially representative juries. A study ordered by Wayne County Circuit Chief Judge Mary Beth Kelly found that 27 percent of those who report for jury duty in Wayne County are black, compared with 42 percent of the county population.

Four of the Supreme Court's five justices nominated by the Republican Party - Maura Corrigan, Robert Young Jr., Stephen Markman and Clifford Taylor - voted for the new rule. It takes effect Jan. 1.

The order said discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin or sex when selecting a jury "is prohibited even in cases where the purpose would be to achieve balanced representation."


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_BLACK_JURORS_MIOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-02-14-31-55

[sinkingfeeling]

1. To bad they left out political affliation...and that Tom Delay isn't being

tried in Michigan.

[Lefty48197]

2. The Michigan Supreme Court sucks

It's no wonder that the right wingers who control it think that having Black Detroiters judged by Whites from the out-county areas is "a jury of your peers". It's those same right-wing Englerites that closed down the Detroit Recorders Court, because Black Detroiters were being judged by juries of their peers, and the White Conservatives from Grand Rapids just couldn't handle that.

[OKthatsIT]

3. A trial by a Jury of our peers? Isnt that in the Constitution?

So, a judicial is rewriting the US Constitution?

[wordpix]

4. so much for integration and civil rights fought for and gained in the '60s