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17 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 1 (2009-2010)
Sixteen Million Angry Men: Reviving a Dead Doctrine to Challenge the Constitutionality of Excluding Felons from Jury Service

handle is hein.journals/vajsplw17 and id is 1 raw text is: SIXTEEN MILLION ANGRY MEN: REVIVING A DEAD DOCTRINE TO CHALLENGE THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF EXCLUDING FELONS FROM JURY SERVICE James M. Binnall CONTENTS I. Introduction ...................................................................................... 2 II. The Irrebuttable Presumption Doctrine: A Divisive History ....... 5 A . Building the D octrine ................................................................... 5 1. Convenience vs. Constitutionality ............................................ 6 2. Setting the Standard for Overinclusiveness .............................. 7 3. Providing Dual Rem edies ......................................................... 9 B. Lim iting the D octrine ................................................................ 10 1. Distinguishing Social Welfare Programs and Catering to E xpediency .............................................................................. 10 2. Favoring Certain Classes .......................................................... 11 3. Requiring an Important Right, Overinclusiveness, and a Feasible Mechanism for Individualized Determinations ....................... 12 III. Conceptualizing Felon Jury Exclusion ......................................... 14 A. The Scope, Rationalization, and Application of Felon Jury E xclusion ...................................................................................... 15 B. Challenging Felon Jury Exclusion ............................................ 18 IV. Jury Service Eligibility: An Important Right .............................. 20 A. The Disempowerment of Convicted Felons ............................. 22 1. Participatory Democracy and the Jury ..................................... 22 2. State Sponsored Stigmatization and Status Loss ..................... 25 B. Recognizing Plurality and Confronting Institutional Rigidity ....... 27 V. Overinclusiveness and the Feasibility of Individualized D eterm inations ............................................................................. 30 A. Presuming: An Overinclusive and Ineffective Strategy ............. 30 B. Making Proper Use of Voir Dire .............................................. 32 1. Protecting the State's Interests ................................................ 32 2. Personal Dignity and Individuality v. Personalized Government 33 3. Enhancing the Legal Regime .................................................. 34 VI. Acknowledging Criticisms ......................................................... 35 A. An Ambiguous Analytical Structure .......................................... 35 B. Generalization: All Legislation Presumes ................................. 37 C. Invalidating for Overinclusiveness: Why Use the Doctrine? ......... 38 VII. Jury Service and Successful Reintegration ................................ 39 V III. C onclusion ................................................................................ 4 1 . Practitioner & PhD Student, University of California at Irvine; LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center; J.D., Thomas Jefferson School of Law; M.S., Wagner College; B.A., Gettysburg College. (Mr. Binnall is a convicted felon who spent over four years in a maximum security prison for a DUI homicide that claimed the life of his best friend; his experiences inform this Article).

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