A Jury of Slaves

The DeKalb County Court in Georgia made headlines this week when it was reported that its online questionnaire for jurors included “slave” as an option for occupation. While the term was quickly scrubbed from the website, I believe that it was actually quite appropriate because the American system of compulsory jury “service” is in fact a form of slavery. Anytime that someone presumes to forcibly extract property or effort from an individual that individual is effectively enslaved by the aggressor. Serving on a jury—just like all other human action—must be voluntary in order to be just and in order to not be slavery. Expecting “justice” to be served by a jury of slaves is as ludicrous as are the vast majority of victimless “crimes” with which individuals are charged by the state. Perhaps all jurors should declare their occupation as “slave”…. They wouldn’t be wrong.

— Parrish