Taylor v. Louisiana

Two years later, the case came before the U.S. Supreme Court. Taylor's lawyer, William M. King, argued that his client's constitutional right to "a fair trial by jury of a representative segment of the community . . . " was violated as a result of Louisiana's consideration of only those women who expressly registered their desire to serve as jurors.

He pointed out that from 8 December 1971, to 3 November 1972, there were only 12 women among the 18,000 people drawn for jury service in St. Tammany Parish, and that there had been no women among the 175 people drawn to fill the list for the criminal term during which Taylor's case was tried. In short, whether the intent to eliminate women from the jury was there or not, the fact was that women were excluded.

The state of Louisiana claimed that Louisiana's jury selection system was constitutional and that, in any event, "Taylor, a male, has no standing to object to the exclusion of women from his jury." In other words, since he was not female, he could not object to the lack of women on the jury.