Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Jury Duty as Involuntary Servitude

Has any court ever issued a precedent that N.Y.State jury service is or is not involuntary servitude, as prohibited by the 13th Amendment?


Asked on 6/22/00, 12:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Harold M. Weiner Coles & Weiner, P.C.

Re: Jury Duty as Involuntary Servitude; Civics 101

Oh, probably, some Justice Court upstate might have...it sounds like their kind of thing. The sad part is that the person posing the question did so in the first place. It took more than a Village, it took the Magna Carta to wrest ultimate power from the King. Then hundreds of years took place before Juries became a right under common law, which we adopted, first as a colony and then as a sovereign state. ( There is, somewhere in the high court in Albany a decision declaring that the common law of England survives the Revolution and is alive and well here. )

The same thinking that would consider this privilege for which men ( and probably some unnamed women heroines) fought and died for, to be a burden, is a graphic illustration of why we should pack it in , not vote in the next Presidential Election, and say to Great Britain, " Forgive us, Elizabeth....we'll pay the back taxes on the tea. " Then if she takes us back, we will at least get the National Health Care that we cannot seem to get on our selfish, me first own; will have a military budged reduced billions of dollars in size, and maybe develop the sense of community we have obviously lost.

That this question should even be posed....I can imagine what the writer thinks of the Draft and obligated military service. The fact that without it he or she would either be dead or speaking German seems to elude her/him. The only involuntary servitude left here ( aside from all the protected categories of Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA and state and local antidiscrimination laws ) is having to get up in the morning, and go to work, isn't it? Pity winning the lottery isn't a civil right. You are witnessing, in this question, everything that is wrong with this poor unfortunate country and society which has gone so far down hill that when the bubble on Wall Street bursts ( and it will sooner or later ) and the new Depression comes, at least this writer, already depressed, will not be shocked or surprised.....but by then two weeks of Jury duty will look good to you, you moron, as your only source of income for the foreseeable future.

Read more
Answered on 9/01/00, 6:08 am


Related Questions & Answers

More General Civil Litigation questions and answers in New York