Summary
The Supreme Court held that West Virginia's statute limiting jury service to white male citizens discriminated against Black citizens and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court further held that the defendant's criminal prosecution could be removed to federal court under Revised Statutes § 641 because the state law denied a federally protected right. The judgment of the Supreme Court of West Virginia was reversed.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from excluding all Black citizens from jury service solely because of race or color.
- Whether a criminal defendant whose federal civil-rights protection is denied by state law may remove the state prosecution to federal court under section 641 of the Revised Statutes.
- Whether the state court erred by proceeding to trial after Strauder filed his removal petition and by overruling his challenge to the jury array and motion to quash the panel.
Holdings
- The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state statute that excludes otherwise qualified Black citizens from grand and petit jury service solely because of their race or color. Such exclusion denies a Black criminal defendant the equal protection of the laws.
- Section 641 of the Revised Statutes was constitutionally authorized, and Strauder's petition established a basis for removal because he was denied a federally protected immunity from race discrimination in jury selection.
- The state court erred by proceeding to trial after Strauder filed his removal petition, overruling his challenge to the jury array, and refusing to quash the jury panel.
Key quotations
“The very fact that colored people are singled out and expressly denied by a statute all right to participate in the administration of the law, as jurors, because of their color, though they are citizens, and may be in other respects fully qualified, is practically a brand upon them, affixed by the law, an assertion of their inferiority, and a stimulant to that race prejudice which is an impediment to securing to individuals of the race that equal justice which the law aims to secure to all others.” (100 U.S. at 308)
“The very idea of a jury is a body of men composed of the peers or equals of the person whose rights it is selected or summoned to determine; that is, of his neighbors, fellows, associates, persons having the same legal status in society as that which he holds.” (100 U.S. at 309)
“There was error, therefore, in proceeding to the trial of the indictment against him after his petition was filed, as also in overruling his challenge to the array of the jury, and in refusing to quash the panel.” (100 U.S. at 312)
Factual background
Strauder, a Black man, was indicted for murder and tried in the Circuit Court of Ohio County, West Virginia. The state jury statute provided that eligible jurors were white male citizens, thereby excluding Black citizens solely because of race. Before trial, Strauder sought removal to federal court and later challenged the venire and jury panel, but the state courts denied his requests and convicted him.
Procedural history
Strauder was indicted and convicted in the Circuit Court of Ohio County, West Virginia, on October 20, 1874. Before trial, he petitioned for removal to the federal circuit court on the ground that West Virginia law excluded Black persons from grand and petit jury service; the state court denied removal. The trial court overruled motions to quash the venire, challenge the array, obtain a new trial, and arrest judgment. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed. The United States Supreme Court reversed and remanded with instructions to reverse the circuit court judgment.
Remand instructions
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia was reversed, and the case was remitted with instructions to reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court of Ohio County.