How Are Federal Jurors Selected? Summons, Voir Dire, and Challenges

Federal jurors are selected in stages: the court pulls names at random from voter registration and state driver records, mails a qualification questionnaire, screens the responses against five statutory requirements, and then, when a case is ready for trial, brings a larger group of qualified people to the courthouse for questioning by the judge and attorneys. That courtroom questioning, called voir dire, is where the final jury is chosen. The whole system runs under the Jury Selection and Service Act of 1968, which requires each federal district to draw juries from a fair cross-section of the community.¹

Where the Names Come From

Every federal district court keeps a “master jury wheel,” a database of names pulled at random from the local population. The statute requires voter registration lists as the base and directs courts to add other sources when voter rolls alone don’t adequately represent the community.² In practice, nearly every district also uses driver’s license and state ID records so that people who drive but don’t vote are still in the pool. Each county or parish inside the district has to be proportionally represented on the wheel.³

The Qualification Questionnaire

From the master wheel, the court randomly picks names and mails each person a juror qualification questionnaire. You have ten days to complete and return it, and many districts now accept an online version.⁴ The form asks about citizenship, age, residency, English proficiency, and criminal history so the court can decide whether you meet the legal requirements to serve.

Ignoring the questionnaire has real consequences. If you don’t return it, the court will order you to appear in person and fill it out. Continue to refuse and a judge can impose a fine of up to $1,000, up to three days in jail, community service, or some combination of those.⁴

Who Qualifies for Federal Jury Service

Federal law sets five requirements, and you have to meet all five:⁵

Be a U.S. citizen at least 18 years old.
Have lived in the judicial district for at least one year.
Be able to read, write, speak, and understand English well enough to complete the qualification form.
Have no mental or physical infirmity that would prevent satisfactory service.
Have no pending felony charge or felony conviction, unless your civil rights have been restored.

Anyone who clears these requirements goes onto the “qualified jury wheel,” the smaller pool the court draws from whenever it needs jurors for a specific trial or grand jury.⁶

Who Is Exempt or Can Be Excused

Three groups are barred from federal jury service, even if they want to serve:⁷

Active-duty members of the armed forces and the National Guard.
Full-time, non-federal professional firefighters and police officers. Volunteer firefighters are not exempt.
Full-time public officers, meaning people who were elected or appointed by an elected official and are actively performing government duties.

Beyond those automatic exemptions, each district has its own plan for hardship excusals. Sole caregiver responsibilities, severe financial hardship from lost income, and medical conditions are the usual grounds. Being busy at work is not. If you want out on hardship grounds, you have to request it, and a judge or clerk decides.

Petit Juries and Grand Juries Come From the Same Pool

Both types of federal jury are drawn from the qualified wheel, but the job is different. A petit jury is the trial jury: 12 members in a criminal case deciding guilty or not guilty,⁸ and 6 to 12 in a civil case.⁹ Petit jurors hear one case and are released; most trials run three to five days.

A grand jury has 16 to 23 members and does not decide guilt. It reviews evidence from federal prosecutors and decides whether there is probable cause to charge someone. Grand jurors serve up to 18 months, with a possible six-month extension, and hear many cases across that term. Grand jury proceedings are secret, with no judge or defense attorney in the room during deliberations.¹⁰

Voir Dire in the Courtroom

When a case is set for trial, the court randomly draws names from the qualified wheel and summons that group, called the venire, to the courthouse.⁶ The panel is deliberately larger than the final jury because the court expects to eliminate a lot of people.

Voir dire is the questioning that follows. The judge introduces the case and the parties, then asks the panel questions aimed at surfacing potential bias. In federal court, the judge runs voir dire; attorneys on both sides can submit questions for the judge to ask and may be given time to ask their own follow-ups.¹¹ How much attorneys participate depends on the judge. Some allow substantial questioning; others do nearly all of it themselves.

The questions cover jobs, education, family, connections to anyone involved in the case, prior jury service, and experiences relevant to the subject matter. The goal isn’t to seat people who know nothing. It’s to identify people whose views are strong enough that they couldn’t set them aside and decide the case on the evidence.

How Jurors Get Cut: Challenges for Cause and Peremptory Challenges

Voir dire is really a process of elimination, and there are two tools for it.

Challenges for Cause

A challenge for cause asks the judge to remove a juror who has shown a specific reason they can’t be impartial. A juror who says they already believe the defendant is guilty, who is related to a witness, or who has a financial stake in the outcome can be struck for cause. There’s no cap on these. An attorney can raise as many as the facts support, and the judge decides each one.¹¹ Vague hunches don’t qualify.

Peremptory Challenges

A peremptory challenge lets an attorney strike a juror without stating any reason. These are limited, and the number depends on the case:

Capital criminal cases: 20 per side.
Other felony cases: 10 for the defense, 6 for the prosecution.
Misdemeanor cases: 3 per side.

Those numbers come from the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.¹² In federal civil trials, each side gets three peremptory challenges, with more allowed by the judge when multiple plaintiffs or defendants are involved.¹³ The defense gets more strikes than the prosecution in felony cases because the stakes are higher for the accused. When both sides have used or passed on their challenges, the remaining jurors are sworn and the trial begins.

The Constitutional Limit on Peremptory Strikes

Peremptory challenges don’t need a reason, but they can’t be based on certain characteristics. In Batson v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court held that prosecutors cannot use peremptory strikes to remove jurors because of their race.¹⁴ J.E.B. v. Alabama extended that rule to gender.¹⁵ Federal statute goes further: no citizen can be excluded from jury service based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or economic status.¹⁶

When one side thinks the other is striking jurors on a prohibited basis, the objecting attorney raises a Batson challenge. The judge then asks the striking attorney for a neutral explanation and decides whether the explanation is genuine or a pretext.

If You Ignore the Summons

Selection depends on people actually showing up. If you get a summons and don’t appear, the court can order you in to explain. Anyone who can’t show good cause faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to three days in jail, community service, or some combination.⁶ The same penalties apply if you ignore the initial questionnaire. Federal law also protects your job: an employer can’t fire, threaten, or punish a permanent employee for serving on a federal jury, though it doesn’t require the employer to keep paying your regular salary.¹⁷

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1861 – Declaration of Policy
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1863 – Plan for Random Jury Selection
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC Ch 121 – Juries Trial by Jury
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1864 – Drawing of Names From the Master Jury Wheel
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1865 – Qualifications for Jury Service
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1866 – Selection and Summoning of Jury Panels
7
United States Courts. Juror Qualifications Exemptions and Excuses
8
Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 23 – Jury or Nonjury Trial
9
Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 48 – Number of Jurors Verdict Polling
10
United States Courts. Types of Juries
11
Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 47 – Selecting Jurors
12
Cornell Law School. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 24 – Trial Jurors
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1870 – Challenges
14
Cornell Law School. Batson v Kentucky 476 US 79
15
Cornell Law School. JEB v Alabama ex rel TB 511 US 127
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1862 – Discrimination Prohibited
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1875 – Protection of Jurors Employment