RAISING A SUCCESSFUL BATSON CHALLENGE IN JURY SELECTION
Nov 1, 2010
Litigants are allowed to use peremptory strikes to control the composition
of their juries, but the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
prevents them from eliminating potential jurors based solely on race,
and more recently gender. A party can raise a "Batson challenge"
to content a peremptory strike that it suspects is motivated solely on
the basis of one of these characteristics.