I wonder if others would agree with me… Kerber does a pretty
good job overall of explaining legalese, understanding that legalese is
intended to complicate jurisprudence by broadening its application… I think. However,
sometimes one has to work a little at understanding her explanation of the impact
of the courts’ decisions. For example, on pp. 133-134, I had to read several
times her explanation of the bottom-line effects of the 1879 Strauder case on women’s
“right” to have women jurors. I did get it (I think) by her stating that “The concept
of obligation was repeatedly confused with claims of rights.” So, when she writes that “neither the courts
nor the liberal community was prepared to concede that the continued exclusion
of women from jury service was a mark of deep prejudice against women,” I took
it to mean that while the courts (state) continued to use Strauder to buttress their argument
that Strauder , viz. an obligation, could not be used by women for more
women jurors because women had a ‘prior’ “right” of voluntary exclusion, the liberal community found in Strauder, viz. women’s “rights,” the legal precedent that jury pools could not
be constructed (by the state) with a lack of women, i.e., that women had a “right”
for a larger jury pool of women.
Personally I find legalese unbearable and I don't actually think she simplified it enough. From the get-go I found myself practically drawing a chart to figure out the Anna Martin case, which made me nervous for the rest. The Strauder case wasn't the only one that I had to reread several times to understand her explanation of a case's impact. But I'm also completely illiterate in legalese.
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