jury[1]So what could make the process of adjusting the family to a new baby even easier?  What’s the best gift for a dad that’s already taken time off work to be home, and needs to get back to the pile of stuff that’s accumulated in his absence?

That’s right folks, it’s jury duty!

In an amazing instance of Murphy’s Law, I got a summons for U.S. District Court effective starting this Friday and continuing on until December.  At any point during that time, I’m subject to being called up to Kansas City, Kansas to participate in jury selection and possible empanelment.

This is my first time being involved in the jury process.  From what I understand, I don’t think I’ll have much of a chance of actually being empaneled; the Harris Poll shows that with increasing education your chance of actually serving on a jury drops significantly.  This would seem to square with the anecdotal evidence of my peers, which has been that as soon as one or the other attorney learns that they have a postgraduate engineering degree they have no interest in having him or her on the jury.

There could be many reasons for this, but I’m inclined to flatter myself by thinking that training in rational thought and scientific weighing of evidence is going to be disfavored by the party in the lawsuit that feels their case is weakest, and that they might be more likely to use a peremptory challenge to eliminate such people given a chance.  In any case, it’s an interesting effect.