Court Opinion

ID: 9420053
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 22:52:44.572721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:22.121956
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Murphy,
dissenting.
The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from convicting any person by use of a jury which is not impartially drawn from a cross-section of the community. That means that juries must *297be chosen without systematic and intentional exclusion of any otherwise qualified group of individuals. Smith v. Texas, 311 U. S. 128. Only in that way can the democratic traditions of the jury system be preserved. Thiel v. Southern Pacific Co., 328 U. S. 217, 220; Glasser v. United States, 315 U. S. 60, 85. It is because I believe that this constitutional standard of jury selection has been ignored in the creation of the so-called “blue ribbon” jury panel in this case that I am forced to dissent.
Preliminarily, it should be noted that legislation by Congress prohibiting the particular kind of inequality here involved is unnecessary to enable us to strike it down under the Constitution. While Congress has the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment, and has done so relative to discrimination in jury selection on the basis of race or color, its failure to legislate as to economic or other discrimination in jury selection does not permit us to stand idly by. We have consistently interfered with state procedure and state legislation when we felt that they were inconsistent with the Fourteenth Amendment or with the federal commerce power despite Congressional silence on the matter involved. See, e. g., West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U. S. 624; Nippert v. Richmond, 327 U. S. 416; Morgan v. Virginia, 328 U. S. 373. And so in this case we are entitled to judge the action of New York by constitutional standards without regard to the absence of relevant federal legislation.
The constitutional vice inherent in the type of “blue ribbon” jury panel here involved is that it rests upon intentional and systematic exclusion of certain classes of people who are admittedly qualified to serve on the general jury panel. Whatever may be the standards erected by jury officials for distinguishing between those eligible *298for such a “blue ribbon” panel and those who are not, the distinction itself is an invalid one. It denies the defendant his constitutional right to be tried by a jury fairly drawn from a cross-section of the community. It forces upon him a jury drawn from a panel chosen in a manner which tends to obliterate the representative basis of the jury.
The selection of the “blue ribbon” panel in this case rests upon the “degree of intelligence as revealed by the questionnaire” sent to prospective jurors, augmented by personal interviews. The questionnaire, however, does not purport to be a test of native intelligence, nor does it appear to offer any sound basis for distinguishing the intelligence of one person from another. The undeniable result has been to permit the jury officials to formulate whatever standards they desire, whether in terms of “intelligence” or some other factor, to eliminate persons from the “blue ribbon” panel, even though they admittedly are qualified for general jury service. That fact is strikingly borne out by the statistics compiled in this case as to the personnel of the “blue ribbon” panel. Certain classes of individuals are totally unrepresented on the panel despite their general qualifications and despite the fact that high intelligence is to be found in such classes.
Percentage of Percentage of total experienced representation on labor forces in ..... Manhattan. “blue ribbon” panel.
Professional and semi-professional.. 12.1 18.8
Proprietors, managers and officials.. 9.3 43
Clerical, sales and kindred workers.. 21. 3 38
Craftsmen, foremen and kindred workers........................ 7.7 0.2
Operatives and kindred workers.... 17 0
Service workers.................. 27. 6 0
Laborers ........................ 4.9 0
Farmers ........................ 0.1 0
*299Such statistics can only mean that the jury officials have evolved some standard other than that of “intelligence” to exclude certain persons from the “blue ribbon” panel. And that standard is apparently of an economic or social nature, unjustified by the democratic principles of the jury system.
The Court points out some of the difficulties involved in comparing the personnel of the panel with 1940 census figures. But we are dealing here with a very subtle and sophisticated form of discrimination which does not lend itself to easy or precise proof. The proof here is adequate enough to demonstrate that this panel, like every discriminatorily selected “blue ribbon” panel, suffers from a constitutional infirmity. That infirmity is the denial of equal protection to those who are tried by a jury drawn from a “blue ribbon” panel. Such a panel is narrower and different from that used in forming juries to try the vast majority of other accused persons. To the extent of that difference, therefore, the persons tried by “blue ribbon” juries receive unequal protection.
In addition, as illustrated in this case, the distinction that is drawn in fact between “blue ribbon” jurors and general jurors is often of such a character as to destroy the representative nature of the “blue ribbon” panel. There is no constitutional right to a jury drawn from a group of uneducated and unintelligent persons. Nor is there any right to a jury chosen solely from those at the lower end of the economic and social scale. But there is a constitutional right to a jury drawn from a group which represents a cross-section of the community. And a cross-section of the community includes persons with varying degrees of training and intelligence and with varying economic and social positions. Under our Constitution, the jury is not to be made the representative of the most intelligent, the most wealthy or the most successful, nor *300of the least intelligent, the least wealthy or the least successful. It is a democratic institution, representative of all qualified classes of people. Smith v. Texas, supra. To the extent that a “blue ribbon” panel fails to reflect this democratic principle, it is constitutionally defective.
The Court demonstrates rather convincingly that it is difficult to prove that the particular petitioners were prejudiced by the discrimination practiced in this case. Yet that should not excuse the failure to comply with the constitutional standard of jury selection. We can never measure accurately the prejudice that results from the exclusion of certain types of qualified people from a jury panel. Such prejudice is so subtle, so intangible, that it escapes the ordinary methods of proof. It may be absent in one case and present in another; it may gradually and silently erode the jury system before it becomes evident. But it is no less real or meaningful for our purposes. If the constitutional right to a jury impartially drawn from a cross-section of the community has been violated, we should vindicate that right even though the effect of the violation has not yet put in a tangible appearance. Otherwise that right may be irretrievably lost in a welter of evidentiary rules.
Since this “blue ribbon” panel falls short of the constitutional standard of jury selection, the judgments below should be reversed.
Me. Justice Black, Mr. Justice Douglas and Mr. Justice Rutledge join in this dissent.