I was dismissed from Jury Duty, so I’m within my rights to talk about the case, such as I know from the Jury Questionnaire.
I got a Jury Duty Summons and today I reported.
It turns out the TN Attorney General is suing Meta and Instagram in Civil Court (there was no Grand Jury…) over the harmful and addictive nature of their Social Media platforms.
Okay.
Should The State be able to sue a private company over mental health damages? I'm not sure.
But the interesting part is my conversation with the Judge and Attorneys.
My “hardship”, which isn’t a hardship per-se, ia the scheduling conflict with 1776 Law Center Chattanooga Conference.
They wanted people to be available THROUGH SEPTEMBER.
Typical Jury Duty is one day, maybe five days.
The funniest part is my description of the Conference when the Judge asked me what it was.
I told him its the second annual law conference for the 1776 Law Center, speakers from all over the world, and the best part is this:
In a room full of Attorneys for Meta and Instagram, I said, out loud “many of you in here are probably familiar with the name Robert Barnes”.
I knew too much ahead of time to be fair to Meta, even though I have problems with the State having power to penalize companies.
Nevertheless, it would have been an interesting case because I could have had a chance to help set legal precedent that would impact this country for years.
Im still going to the Conference, though.
After they asked me to step outside while they conferred, it took about ten seconds for me to be dismissed.
Im a little sad but mostly angry.
Why?
Trial by Jury is a right; but I should have the right of refusal as a Citizen.
The way they summon you is not voluntary and I cannot agree with it in good conscience. Ironically, the Attorney instruction the potential Jurors during voir dire kept saying “thanks for coming today” like we had a choice.
Lots of people were super pissed off at having to be there.
If the State Attorney were being honest, they should’ve had the courtesy to say “Thanks for coming in under threat of prison and fines. You’ll find out shortly if your life is being postponed for an afternoon or two months”.
There were some pleasant conversations with other people, so that made the time pass more smoothly, but I still resent the manner in which it was done.
Also the Judge never swore us in.
I thought he was supposed to do that…
