A Bar to Peremptory Jury Challenges

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The acquittal by an all-white jury in Simi Valley, Calif., of four police officers in the Rodney King case last April brought national attention to the racial composition of juries. Last week the Supreme Court held, by a 7-to-2 vote, that defendants cannot exclude people from juries on the basis of their race. The decision limits peremptory challenges, which have traditionally allowed jurors to be excluded from serving without any explanation. "Be it at the hands of the State or the defense," wrote Justice Harry Blackmun for the majority, "if a court allows jurors to be excluded because of group bias, it is a willing participant in a scheme that could only undermine the very foundation of our system of justice -- our citizens' confidence in it."

The decision was closer than the vote would indicate. Justice Clarence Thomas, who reluctantly concurred with the majority, joined dissenter Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in fearing that the decision would have an adverse effect on black defendants who want to exclude white potential jurors to get minority representation on their juries. "I am certain that black criminal defendants will rue the day that this court ventured down this road," wrote Thomas.

In a second decision, the court struck down by a 5-to-4 vote a Forsyth County, Ga., law that required demonstrators to purchase a parade permit for a fee based on the anticipated cost of police protection. The permit fee was imposed after a series of costly civil rights marches. Said Blackmun, again ! writing for the majority: "Speech cannot be financially burdened, any more than it can be punished or banned, simply because it might offend a hostile mob." Still to come before the end of the term: 14 decisions, involving such major issues as abortion, prayer in the schools and cigarette-industry liability.