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New Jersey Supreme Court
Ron Chen/Rutgers Constitutional Litigation Clinic; Edward Barocas/ACLU-NJ
The State Supreme Court ruled on December 22, 2004, that a prosecutor violated the New Jersey Constitution when he removed two jurors from a jury pool, one for wearing Muslim religious clothing and another for having engaged in missionary activity. The prosecutor had excluded the two jurors stating that they "demonstrative about their religion" and that such persons "tend to favor defendants . . ."
In its brief, the ACLU-NJ argued that such actions violated the Equal Protection and freedom of religion clauses of the United States and New Jersey Constitutions, as well as the right to trial by an impartial jury. The ACLU-NJ explained that not only should people be free to express themselves about their religion but, in addition, such a basis for jury removal will often lead to discrimination against identifiable religious minorities.
In its opinion, the New Jersey Supreme Court cited to the ACLU-NJ's brief to support its holding that: "Clothing, in those cases, is little more than a proxy for religion." Indeed, the Court noted that certain religions require outward expressions of faith or encourage missionary service more than others and, if the prosecutor's actions were permitted to stand, those religious groups would be discriminated against and, therefore, improperly underrepresented in juries.
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