Fascinating case

[Horwitz, Paul]

--Let me see if I have this right. A Jewish lawyer, who
describes jurors as a bunch of "fundamentalist
rednecks," is complaining about religious
discrimination. Hmmm. Very interesting.--

I don't have this text, so I'm not sure of the answer, but was it the Jewish
lawyer who used the phrase "fundamentalist rednecks"?  Or the client and the
other attorneys?  The earlier description wasn't very clear on this.  And
was he stating his own opinion, or paraphrasing the client and other
attorneys, who evidently shared the same view, since they were determined to
exclude their Jewish colleague from particpating at trial.

In any event, while the phrase unfortunately does capture how a number of
people feel about many Southerners, there is still a distinction between
prejudice and discrimination.  Full many an individual who may harbor a
prejudice against my views and/or status would not for a moment consider
treating me as the associate in this anecdote was treated.  The partner's
effort to reassure the associate that he too disliked the alleged (and
unproven) biases in the jury pool can't have been too comforting in light of
the fact that he was perfectly willing to give in to them.

Paul Horwitz
phorwitz at OMM.com