Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975), argued 16 Oct. 1974, decided 21 Jan. 1975 by vote of 8 to 1; White for the Court, Burger concurring, Rehnquist in dissent. Taylor was brought by a man charged with rape who had argued unsuccessfully in the Louisiana state courts that its “volunteers only” jury service provision violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from a representative cross section of the community. In Hoyt v. Florida (1961) the Supreme Court had upheld the conviction of a female defendant who had argued that a similar Florida provision violated her rights to equal protection of the law and to a trial by a jury of her peers. The Florida registration provision had yielded only ten females in a pool of 9,900 jurors, and none of the women were called for her venire.

In Taylor, the Court held, first, that the systematic exclusion of women from jury panels violated any defendant's (male or female) fundamental right to a jury trial drawn from a representative cross section of the community and, second, that women as a class cannot be excluded from jury service or given automatic exemptions if the result is that panels are almost all male. Thus, the Court effectively overruled Hoyt v. Florida, although it was distinguished as not resting on the Sixth Amendment grounds. Four years later, in Duren v. Missouri (1979), the Court extended Taylor to invalidate a Missouri statute that allowed for the exemption of women from jury service, which had produced juries that generally were at least 85 percent male.

See also Gender; Trial by Jury.

Karen O'Connor

TAYLOR V. LOUISIANA

TAYLOR V. LOUISIANA, 419 U.S. 522 (1975). Billy Taylor, accused of rape, appealed to the Supreme Court claiming that a state law exempting women from jury duty infringed on his Sixth Amendment right to be tried by an impartial jury. The Court ruled in Taylor's favor, invalidating all state laws restricting jury duty on the basis of gender. In Louisiana women could be called for jury service only if they filed a written declaration of their willingness to serve. As a result, most Louisiana juries, including the one that convicted Taylor, were all-male. Louisiana's practice was similar to one that the Court had unanimously upheld in Hoyt v. Florida (1961), a decision that sustained the Florida law as a reasonable concession to women's family responsibilities. The Court had implied acceptance of states' exclusion of women from grand juries as recently as 1972. But Taylor ended special treatment for women. The Court quoted from an earlier case: "Who would claim that a jury was truly representative of the community if all men were intentionally and systematically excluded from the panel?" In Duren v. Missouri (1979) the Court extended its ruling in Taylor to a Missouri law allowing women to be exempted from jury service on the basis of their gender. Since Taylor, jury duty has been a responsibility shared equally by men and women.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baer, Judith A. Women in American Law. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985–1991.

Judith A.Baer/a. r.

See alsoCivil Rights and Liberties ; Jury Trial ; Women's Rights Movement: The 20th Century .