RAISING A SUCCESSFUL BATSON CHALLENGE IN JURY SELECTION

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.