Missouri asks Supreme Court to contemplate jury disqualification over Christian beliefs

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey requested the Supreme Court this week to listen to a case over disqualifying jurors based mostly on their Christian beliefs, saying the Constitution doesn’t help spiritual discrimination.

Missouri’s prime cop claims a trial court docket struck jurors from contemplating Jean Finney’s employment discrimination claims in opposition to her employer, the state’s division of corrections, just because they held Christian beliefs, a transfer he says was illegal as a result of the trial court docket had discovered the jurors may very well be unbiased.

“Jurors can be excluded, of course, if their religious views in fact make them biased — just like jurors can be excluded if their race or sex in fact makes them biased. But this court’s precedents make clear that courts cannot assume, based on stereotypes about race or sex, that a person will be biased. The same ought to be true with religion,” Mr. Bailey’s court docket submitting learn.

Ms. Finney’s lawyer had moved to take away the potential jurors throughout jury choice on account of his consumer being lesbian, based on the lawyer common’s submitting.

Her lawyer allegedly requested jurors in the event that they held conservative Christian beliefs, and after some stated that they did, the lawyer stated, “I don’t think that you can ever rehabilitate yourself, no matter what.”

The submitting famous that the trial court docket reasoned the jurors may very well be “absolutely fair and impartial” regardless of holding Christian beliefs — however the court docket agreed to disqualify the jurors “to err on the side of caution.”

That transfer, Mr. Bailey stated, runs afoul of the Constitution.

“As attorney general, I will protect the Constitution and Missourians’ right to be free from religious discrimination, which is explicitly enshrined in the Constitution,” Mr. Bailey stated. “The Constitution isn’t up for debate. My office will use every legal mechanism available to us to defend the fundamental right to be free from religious discrimination, inside and outside of the jury box.”

It would take 4 justices to vote in favor of listening to the case, Missouri Department of Corrections v. Jean Finney.

A lawyer representing Ms. Finney didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the state’s petition to the excessive court docket.

The case arose when Ms. Finney started a relationship with a coworker’s ex-spouse.

She says the coworker unfold false rumors about her at work and harassed her, making it onerous to do her job. She sued the state’s correctional division, alleging it was chargeable for the conduct underneath the Missouri Human Rights Act.

The jury dominated in favor of Ms. Finney. The state has petitioned for a brand new trial because of the truth some jurors had been struck based mostly on Christian beliefs.

The decrease court docket, although, denied the state’s request for a brand new trial, prompting Mr. Bailey to take the case to the Supreme Court.