Bucking another trend, Ted Cruz reports to jury duty even though senators are exempt

Sen. Ted Cruz could have gotten out of jury duty – as a member of Congress, he is exempt.

But the Texas Republican known for his penchant for bucking trends showed up – in black cowboy boots, no less – for jury duty Friday, setting social media abuzz.

Cruz, a lwayer, was among about 100 Harris County residents who were called to jury duty that day, according to the Houston Chronicle.

His presence was noted by District Clerk Chris Daniel, who told the prospective jurors: "Whether you're new to the workforce or you may serve in Washington, one way or another, we're thankful you all came out here for jury duty today."

Others in the jury pool snapped photos of the senator and posted them on their social media pages.

District Court Judge Ryan Patrick, @ryanpatrick177, tweeted: "The courthouse is abuzz more than normal with @tedcruz making onto a jury panel for voire dire."(continued)

Not true. I sat on a jury once. Neither the prosecutor nor the defense attorney did a very good job on voir dire. Either one could have probably gotten me stricken for cause. Hate to think of how bad the pool was that neither side wanted me off. I considered the experience to be worth far more than any CLE course I’ve attended.

My husband is a frequent-flyer juror, for some reason they always take him and he gets summonsed all the time. Just the luck of the draw I guess.

He got struck the first time because I was clerking for a federal judge known locally as "Maximum" not only because he always gave the maximum sentence (back in the days before grids) but because he was 6'5" and probably 350 pounds on a skinny day. Prosecutor asked the "does your wife work outside the home" series of questions, and when the name of my employer came up, the prosecutor said, "No further questions, he's acceptable to us," and the defense attorney (who hubby said had turned pale) said, "Get him out of here before he contaminates the others."

But the second time he was called the defense attorney was not about to waste his credibility on a lengthy voir dire - judge said, "This is the case of the State versus Tony Austin. Stand up Tony." Tony stood up. "Sit down Tony." Tony sat down. He had robbed a 7-11, tried to run over a policeman in the parking lot, led police on a high speed chase, wrecked his car, and was found unconscious in the driver's seat with the gun and the money beside him in a plastic bag. He didn't want to plead, and the defense attorney just took the first 12 jurors.

They went back in the jury room, came out about 20 minutes later and everybody was gone. Judge informed the jury that Tony had pleaded guilty as soon as he eyeballed his jury . . . "we dropped the charge of trying to run over the policeman, but I gave him just as much time." Judge later went on to be a Supreme Court Justice. No nonsense fellow, I liked him a lot.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.