Pride, Prejudice, and Voir Dire

Pride, Prejudice, and Voir Dire examines jury selection as a doctrinal, procedural, and behavioral discipline. Lockhart and Margolis combine trial practice perspective with academic research on implicit bias, group decision-making, and the psychology of juror selection.

The book addresses voir dire across federal and state systems, with detailed treatment of the procedural variations that determine what attorneys can ask, how long they have to ask it, and which strikes remain available. The chapters then move from procedure to substance: what is actually known about implicit bias, how juror attitudes form and resist change, and how the trial advocate works within the structural limits of the courtroom to produce a jury that can decide the case fairly.

Doctrinal Coverage

The doctrinal chapters address Batson v. Kentucky and its progeny across the federal circuits and major state systems, peremptory challenge frameworks (including jurisdictions that have abolished peremptories), juror questionnaires, and the standards for cause challenges. Each doctrinal section includes practice notes for the trial advocate, with attention to jurisdictional variation and emerging developments in jury selection law.

Drawing on Diane Lockhart's commercial trial practice and Prof. Margolis's research on group decision-making, the book serves as both a reference work and a critical examination of how courts and counsel approach the central problem of juror bias.