To review:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
That’s the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Tomorrow, my government intends to violate that amendment by requiring me to report for jury duty under threat of fine and/or imprisonment. It has charged me with no crime. It has convicted me of no crime. Yet I am being forced into involuntary servitude. I must accept the revocation of one liberty to avoid the revocation of another liberty. This is supposedly my duty in exchange for exercising my Constitutional right to vote. That is immoral.
I love the United States Constitution. Tomorrow appears to be the day I finally grasp that my country does not.
It’s still a pain in the ass, because you’d have to report and sit through the screening, but I imagine you could all-but-guarantee that you’d be dismissed, pretty easily.
Or, in Michigan, you can just call up and tell them that you no longer live at that address, and hence, you’re no longer eligible to be a juror in that locality…
I was dismissed during voir dire as the attorneys involved found their 12 people out of a pool of about 50 before they even asked me a question.
Of course, that was local-circuit. I just got a questionnaire for federal jury duty last week. Joy (I’ve heard fed duty is a real PITA).
It’s really easy to get out of it if you want out. I didn’t even want out and got out of it because the prosecutor’s attorney didn’t like me and dismissed me in the final stage where each lawyer can dismiss some jurors without reason.