Opinion ID: 1133490
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Racial composition of the venire

Text: {85} As with the petit jury, the venire must be selected in an entirely neutral and nondiscriminatory manner. The Equal Protection Clause guarantees the defendant that the State will not exclude members of his race from the jury venire on account of race or on the false assumption that members of his race as a group are not qualified to serve as jurors. Batson, 476 U.S. at 86, 106 S.Ct. 1712 (citations and footnote omitted). The State may not pass laws or promulgate rules that expressly exclude, on the basis of race, qualified individuals from the jury pool. See Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303, 308-09, 25 L.Ed. 664 (1879). Nor may government officials implement a neutral venire selection law in a discriminatory manner. Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 241, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976) (A statute, otherwise neutral on its face, must not be applied so as invidiously to discriminate on the basis of race.). House seeks to apply these notions to adjudicating the racial composition of a venue.