J. E. B. v. Alabama ex rel T. B. - Significance

The U.S. Supreme Court had to determine whether its 1986 decision in Batson v. Kentucky (prohibiting exercise of peremptory challenges on the basis of race) could be similarly applied to a case where peremptory challenges were exercised on the basis of gender. Although respondent's rational that exclusion of jurors on the basis of sex could be justified because of expectations that male jurors might be predisposed to the arguments of the father, the Court reasoned that such stereotypical considerations could not validly exclude jurors. Intentional sex-based peremptory strikes were prohibited just as peremptory strikes based on racial discrimination.