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

The judgement of the U.S. Supreme Court resolved the question of whether peremptory challenges, exercised because of gender prejudices, could survive "the heightened equal protection scrutiny." Majority justices held that equal protection principles applied when intentional peremptory challenges were exercised solely on the basis of gender. Discrimination and exclusion of jurors from the jury pool solely because of gender was, therefore, an intrusive exercise of peremptory challenges which was inconsistent with the integrity of the judicial system. The majority of the justices found that sex stereotypes were inappropriate and that gender bias could not justify exclusion of male/female jurors. Impartial juries had to be regarded as a competent collective not a matter of gender-based groups. In his separate concurring opinion, Justice Kennedy aptly summarized the Court's rationale: "the Constitution guarantees a right only to an impartial jury, not to a jury composed of members of a particular race or gender."