What do you do if you are summoned for jury duty? If you've already gotten postponed for 12 months, or 2 years? What if you're STILL nursing or a stay at home mom? Or nursing a new baby who is only 2 or 3 months old? Some mothers have no car, and are the primary caregivers, and/or even homeschooling their older children.
Every state is different, and some are more or less supportive of family needs. It's not just protecting the moms - it's protecting anyone who is a dependent. It's protecting the elderly, the young, the nursing. They may have no alternative care, or perhaps rather unreliable or unsafe care, if their care provider were summoned for a day, or a week. The woman (or man's!) partner will most likely not be permitted to stay home for the time in jury duty, and if they were able to get out of work, could be without pay. Forty or fifty dollars a day will not pay for housing, food, childcare, etc.
I recently looked up the protections in different states and found some great resources I wanted to gather:
Family Friendly Jury Duty gathers all applicable legislation on jury duty for all US states and territories. It not only gathers current legislation but also pending or failed legislation.
This is a summary of all 50 states breastfeeding-specific legislation. Only twelve states specifically protect breastfeeding children in their legislation per Le Leche League. Others states do protect stay-at-home parents of children up to a certain age, or adults who provide full-time care to family members of any age.
Unfortunately, having breastfeeding-specific protection doesn't always turn out properly. Several states only protect stay-at-home moms who are breastfeeding. They do not make provisions for working mothers who must pump while away from their child. In this case making it clear that one requires time and place to pump during the day may alone lead to a postponement of service. Here is one mother's story of completing a week of service. She was given the time and a private space to pump. Kellymom also provides some additional resources.
In the case of having no specific protection for caring for a family member or breastfeeding, Le Leche League recommends writing a letter requesting exemption, including a "note from the child's doctor stating the child is exclusively breastfed. The letter should state that the mother is willing to do jury duty at a future time."
As recently as last March, a mom of a young baby was held in contempt of court for requesting a postponement in Maryland. She was sentenced to a night in jail or a $150 fine. "Under current Maryland law, a breastfeeding mother may be excused from jury duty only at the judge’s discretion and only for the period of time the judge deems necessary" (a family-friendly bill was shot down in 2004). The best statement in the ABC News article was by Brian Frosh, Chair for the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, who said the law would cause more people to try to postpone their duties, "If you start saying, we’re gonna excuse people for breastfeeding, you’ve gotta say ok to kidney dialysis, chemotherapy and all the other maladies that afflict the human condition." I would wager a guess that a judge would already readily excuse someone on active dialysis or chemotherapy! Why would that not be extraordinary circumstances that would cause undue hardship? Also, I doubt that they would be up for a day (or a week!) in the courthouse. How is needing to nurse a child every few hours (or having to pump every few hours while serving their civic duty) so far-fetched?
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer or legal professional.
