Greg Mankiw goes through the same experience as a potential juror as I did in 1999.
Jury screening began on December 16, and we were told that it would last probably three weeks. You could tell that nobody wanted to be there. There were (I believe) 34 of us to begin with and only about eight were still around by the end of the day.
My turn was pretty late, so I was there most of the day. My way out of this medical malpractice case simply required me telling the lawyers, after the judge asked if I could be impartial, that a) I had been to law school (only for a few classes as part of a law and economics field), and b) "I don't believe in strict liability for medical malpractice cases." The plaintiff's attorneys both looked up at me and then used one of their preemptory challenges to immediately disqualify me from the pool of potential jurors. I actually want to sit on a jury sometime.
A "jury of your peers" is an oxymoron. Today it simply means people not necessarily competent to preside as a juror over complex issues that arise as part of a lawsuit.
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