The Judiciary Committee of the Minnesota Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to ban the use of sexual orientation or marital status as a reason to dismiss a juror.

Sen. Dibble told the committee: “When we exclude jurors on the bases of marriage or sexual orientation we are really denying the ability to create a fair and impartial jury or peers.”

Phil Duran from OutFront Minnesota noted that California and Oregon have already outlawed such discrimination.

Sen. Dick Cohen recalled that discrimination in juries was used frequently up uyntil the 1980s in the American South to keep African Americans off of juries.

Sen. Warren Limmer, the chief author of the amendment to ban same-sex marriage last year, asked Dibble if the bill would be a vehicle to legalizing same-sex marriage through amendments, and Dibble said he did not view the bill in that way.

“There is no surprise in this bill, there will be no surprise on this bill. I’m only interested in seeing this bill move forward,” said Dibble.

Sen. Dan Hall, who had also supported the marriage amendment, said, “I just want to state, with all do respect to Sen. Dibble, it sounds like we are trying to solve a problem that isn’t there
so I’ll just be voting against this.”

Sen. Cohen shot back, “Gee, that’s what we said about photo ID,” to a round of committee laughter.

“Should it be all right to exclude someone from jury service on the basis of sexual orientation or marital status?” Dibble asked. “I hope the answer to that is no.”

The measure then passed by a voice vote and will now head to the Senate floor.

After the vote, Minnpost caught up with Sen. Hall.

“I don’t see a problem happening with it, and if there’s no problem, why are we making bills?” he told Minnpost. “If there’s a concern, I understand, but it seems we have had no incidents in the past in Minnesota that we can see on marital status discrimination or discrimination on gays when it comes to jury duty, so why make a law about it?”

But as Dibble and Duran pointed out in the committee, there have been cases in Minnesota where an LGBT juror has been dismissed because of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status.

The American Independent produced a report last year that showed numerous examples in state and federal courts of LGBT jurors being dismissed.