Voir dire is the process that determines who actually sits on a jury

Federal juries are selected from voter rolls and driver's license lists

Courts randomly draw prospective jurors from these sources, then mail qualification questionnaires. Those who qualify may be summoned for voir dire, where judges and attorneys question candidates before seating a final jury.

Explore state-level data on juries.

A TV show put one unsuspecting man on a fake jury surrounded entirely by actors for three weeks.

In the Amazon comedy "Jury Duty," Ronald Gladden believed he was participating in a documentary about the judicial process, unaware that everyone involved with the entire trial was an actor. In this podcast, Gladden and director Jake Szymanski reflect on the experience.

Explore jury nullification, the little-known power that lets jurors ignore the law and acquit anyway

When jurors disagree with a law, they can simply vote to acquit regardless of the evidence; however, this practice is rare, and the legal system actively discourages it. This podcast traces its history from a Quaker prayer meeting in London to the LA riots.

Go inside a real jury room as 12 Americans deliberate a criminal case.

This PBS "Frontline" documentary from 1986 was the first to film actual jury deliberations on American television, capturing a Wisconsin criminal trial jury wrestling with the evidence and the case's consequences.

Grand juries investigate crimes and decide whether the government has enough evidence to charge someone

Unlike trial juries, which determine guilt, grand juries decide whether there is probable cause to bring charges at all. If they find enough evidence, they issue a formal indictment. Federal grand juries are enshrined in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.

Read the criteria for federal jury selection and the exemptions and excuses that can get you out of it.

Federal jurors must be US citizens, at least 18 years old, proficient in English, and free of felony convictions. Active-duty military, full-time police and firefighters, and certain public officials are fully exempt from service.

Hear from the casting director who assembled the entirely fake jury for 'Jury Duty'

Casting director Susie Ferris breaks down how she built the show's ensemble from scratch, from combing through early audition tapes to persuading James Marsden to play a heightened version of himself alongside unknowing juror Ronald Gladden.

'Saturday Night Live' parodied the jury selection process in 2025

This "SNL" sketch lampoons the lengths people go to avoid jury duty, with prospective jurors claiming that a Kardashian hit them with a car, that they are from the future and already know the verdict, and that they should be the judge instead.

See how a US Supreme Court justice is nominated and confirmed

A president nominates a Supreme Court justice, the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts public hearings and background vetting, and the full Senate debates and votes on confirmation—a process explained step by step in this video.

What is déjà vu?

Déjà vu describes the strange experience of a situation feeling much more familiar than it should. Here's an explanation of theories about why it happens.

A 1986 Supreme Court ruling prohibited race-based jury strikes, but racial imbalance in jury selection persists

Batson v. Kentucky banned prosecutors from excluding jurors on the basis of race, but critics say it backfired. Prosecutors often use race-neutral pretexts to remove potential jurors that judges rarely reject, and some courts have never found a violation of the ruling.

Juror pay varies widely by state, and most employers are not required to cover it.

State court juror pay ranges from nothing in Illinois and South Carolina to $50 per day in six states, with a national average of around $22 per day. Only eight states and DC require employers to provide paid time off during jury service.

Trial by jury was an important source of colonial resistance to British rule

Colonial juries refused to convict Americans who violated British trade laws, and Britain's response, stripping away jury rights, became a central grievance of the Revolution. The Declaration of Independence explicitly cited the denial of the right to trial by jury as a charge against King George III.

The word 'vertigo' derives from the Latin 'vertere,' meaning to turn

Beyond the word's origin, this article makes clear that fuzzy definitions of the disorder make it confusing for patients to describe it.

Grand juries were once considered a formality, but that may no longer be the case

New York's former chief judge famously said a prosecutor could get a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich," showing how rarely a grand jury refused. However, recent cases in which prosecutors failed to secure an indictment during the second Trump administration are challenging that assumption.

Black Americans were systematically excluded from juries for much of US history

Literacy tests, poll taxes, and even explicit laws kept Black Americans off juries until well into the 20th century. The Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968 mandated that federal juries reflect a fair cross-section of the community, though racial disparities in jury selection persist.

What exactly is déjà vu?

While people have wondered about déjà vu for a long time, only recently have scientists started experimentally investigating what might trigger it. Read this deep dive into the latest science.

The roots of American law and the jury system trace back to medieval England

King Henry II established a jury of 12 local knights to settle land disputes in the 12th century, and his judges developed national laws common to everyone. American courts inherited this "common law" tradition directly from the English system.

The vast majority of federal criminal cases never reach a jury.

In fiscal year 2022, nearly 90% of federal defendants pleaded guilty, and another 8% had their cases dismissed. This means just 2% went to trial at all, making a trial by jury a rare outcome in the modern federal court system.

All states did not require a unanimous jury verdict to convict until a 2020 Supreme Court case

In Ramos v. Louisiana, the court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous jury verdicts to convict in criminal cases, overturning laws in Louisiana and Oregon that had allowed convictions with only 10 of 12 jurors in agreement.

Michelin judges act as anonymous restaurant inspectors

Go behind the scenes with Gwendal Poullennec, international director of The Michelin Guide and the man who oversees all those anonymous inspectors. This short video dives into who the inspectors are, the training process, and what they look for in a meal.

The solicitor general argues the federal government's cases before the Supreme Court

Sometimes called the "10th justice," the solicitor general is the DOJ official responsible for representing the United States before the Supreme Court—deciding which cases the government will appeal, filing briefs, and arguing on behalf of federal interests.

Vertigo is a mismatch of information between the eyes and the ears

Both vertigo and motion sickness can be caused by mismatches between visual and auditory inputs.The brain relies on inputs from the eyes, inner ear, and receptors in muscles and joints to orient the body. When the eyes suggest movement but other signals suggest the body is stationary dizziness and nausea can occur.

Watch 2 Supreme Court justices debate how the Constitution should be interpreted

In a 2009 conversation, former Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen G. Breyer lay out competing approaches to constitutional interpretation: Scalia's textualist, strict constructionism versus Breyer's evolutionary view of the Constitution in practice.

The Supreme Court extended the ban on discriminatory jury strikes to include gender in 1994

In J.E.B. v. Alabama, the court ruled 6-3 that using peremptory challenges to exclude jurors based on sex violates the Equal Protection Clause, building on its 1986 Batson decision banning race-based strikes.

What did democracy really mean in Athens?

Ancient Athens chose the vast majority of its public servants by lottery, a process of random selection known as sortition. Roughly 30,000 people were eligible for the lottery to serve as jurors, magistrates, and more. Monthly assemblies called the "ekklesia" occurred where anyone could attend and speak, but 500 governing council members called the "Boule" set the agenda.

Watch scholars debate Supreme Court term limits

In a debate from 2017, legal scholars from across the political spectrum spar over whether justices should serve fixed terms. The discussion highlights bipartisan concerns about judicial independence, accountability, and the risks of lifetime tenure.

An ‘auteur’ is another name for the chief creative mind of a film

“Auteur” is French for author. In film studies, the word refers to a film director who is considered the principal creative mind, or author, behind a film. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, and Greta Gerwig are often considered auteurs.

In the US, any court can rule on constitutionality—unlike in most other countries

In the American system, known as diffuse judicial review, federal and state courts at every level may assess whether laws comply with the Constitution, and their decisions are ultimately reviewable by the Supreme Court. Many other democracies, by contrast, reserve constitutional review to specialized constitutional courts.

A Mississippi man was tried six times for the same crime, each time before an all-white or nearly all-white jury

This podcast investigates how prosecutor Doug Evans systematically struck Black jurors across decades of cases. The team built a database of every jury strike Evans made over 20 years, uncovering a racial pattern that was later cited by the Supreme Court when it overturned Curtis Flowers' conviction in 2019.

Vertigo is considered a subtype of dizziness

This two-minute video explains vertigo—a subtype of dizziness—and its many potential causes. It explores the vestibular system, the inner ear system, which typically governs our sense of stability, and details its anatomy.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees the right to a jury trial in federal civil cases

Ratified in 1791, this amendment applies to cases where more than $20 is at stake—an amount that has never been adjusted for inflation.

In 41 states, older Americans can opt out of jury duty, but not in federal court

As of 2024, 41 states offer age-based exemptions from state jury duty, with opt-out ages ranging from 65 in Mississippi and South Carolina to 80 in five states. None of these exemptions applies to federal court.

Why do you feel like you've been here before?

Walking into a new environment and feeling like you've been there before is a hallmark of déjà vu, a French term meaning "already seen" that describes the sensation of remembering the unfamiliar and may come with "an illusory sense of prediction." Research suggests déjà vu may manifest when there's a hiccup in the brain's familiarity detection and memory recall, forcing one's attention inward to seek the supposed source of familiarity.

How science explains déjà vu

Take a fun look at the science explaining the odd experience of déjà vu, which some theories suggest is actually a sign of a healthy brain.

What is a whodunit?

The whodunit is a subgenre of the mystery genre that opens with a crime and invites readers (or, in the case of movies and television, viewers) to attempt to solve the mystery alongside the protagonist detective. This guide to the form breaks down its history, conventions, and contemporary impact. As a bonus, it also offers a reading list of some of the best whodunits in history.

Déjà vu is a memory illusion involving brain regions correcting inaccurate memories

Neuroscientists suggest the phenomenon is your brain recognizing that this feeling of familiarity is incorrect, showing off the brain's internal fact-checking system. Younger people experience déjà vu more often because their brains have higher excitatory activity and stronger memory monitoring systems.

‘Demo days’ are when founders at Y Combinator pitch their startup ideas

Investors sit in the audience, waiting to hear what this season’s batch of YC founders have cooked up. YC argues that going through the process of a demo day can help founders get a better understanding of their startup themselves.

Take a deep dive into the constitutional foundations of judicial review

In this episode of "This Constitution," the hosts take a law-focused approach to judicial review—examining its roots in Article III and the supremacy clause, its development through Marbury v. Madison, and the ongoing constitutional debates about whether the court's power strengthens or strains American democracy.

Photography and video are prohibited in the Supreme Court—but artists are not

Because cameras are banned inside the Supreme Court of the United States, courtroom artists document proceedings through sketches. This exhibition features works from 1964 to today, capturing the human drama of landmark cases and shaping how Americans visualize justice.

Roughly 830 people are invited to anonymously vote for winners

These anonymous voters must see every show in order to weigh in with their vote, meaning a big part of being a voter is a time commitment: Every season has at least 30 unique productions to see.

How Eurovision selects its winners

Competing acts are judged by a combination of music industry professionals, peers, and viewers, creating a suspenseful on-air tally to reveal the contest's ultimate winner.

Immigration courts are part of the DOJ, not the judicial branch

Unlike federal courts, immigration courts operate under the DOJ's Executive Office for Immigration Review—meaning immigration judges are DOJ employees, not independent judicial officers, and their decisions can be reviewed and overturned by the attorney general.

Supreme Court justices serve for life

The Constitution grants Supreme Court justices lifetime appointments to shield them from electoral politics and outside pressure, a design meant to preserve judicial independence but now widely debated due to longer lifespans and partisan balances of the court.

Courts referee federalism disputes between Congress and the states

Modern federalism is primarily worked out through litigation. The Supreme Court decides disputes in written opinions that explain when federal law preempts state authority, how far Congress's powers extend, and when states may resist.

Probate is a legal process that determines if someone’s will is valid

The executor of the will in question not only collects estate assets, but also pays outstanding taxes and more. Grantors sometimes opt for a revocable trust instead of a will so their assets avoid probate in the event of their death.

In recent decades, Supreme Court nominations have grown increasingly contentious and partisan

This video examines the historical shift from bipartisan, civil confirmation hearings to the deeply divisive process seen today. It focuses on the 1987 nomination of Robert Bork, the most recent nominee to be rejected, as an important moment in this transformation.

John Marshall presided over Aaron Burr's 1807 treason trial

During the 1807 trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, Marshall required proof of an overt act witnessed by two people to sustain a treason charge. His rulings limited executive influence and reinforced constitutional standards for conviction under Article III.

In the SEC vs. Jarkesy ruling of 2024, the Supreme Court overturned the Securities and Exchange Commission's ability to seek civil penalties for securities fraud in-house, which significantly scaled back the agency's enforcement capabilities.