Batson v. Kentucky - Significance

Limited the use of the peremptory challenge, which had given attorneys on both sides the right to strike potential jurors without providing a valid reason. Sex-based peremptory challenges were extended to include those based on race, making it illegal to dismiss a juror based on race.

In 1981, James Kirkland Batson went to trial in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on burglary charges. Batson was an African American. During the jury selection process, the prosecutor used the "peremptory challenge" to dismiss four African Americans from the panel, and an all-white jury was selected. The peremptory challenge had been a cornerstone of the American jury selection process since the late eighteenth century, and had become particularly entrenched in the legal system since the mid-1960s. In essence, it allowed a prosecutor to object to potential jurors without providing a reason for their unsuitability, and dismiss them from having to serve. In legal terminology, "peremptory" means "precluding further debate or action;" another definition implies "authoritarian, mandatory."