Thomas Asks Rare Questions About Race in Jury Selection (4)

Justice Clarence Thomas asked his first questions in years at oral argument in a case about racism in jury selection at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The hour-long session was drawing to a close March 20 in the case where defendant Curtis Flowers appeared to be winning his argument that the prosecutor in his case unlawfully discriminated against prospective black jurors by improperly blocking them from sitting on the jury.

Each side in a prosecution gets a number of “peremptory strikes” that they can use to block jurors from sitting on a case, but the Supreme Court has ruled that lawyers ...