Venirepersons’/jurors’ privacy interest in their personal information

Three groups sometimes have conflicting views about whether venirepersons’/jurors’ personal information should be disclosed:

• The venirepersons/jurors, who generally prefer to keep such information private, especially if disclosure would be embarrassing or dangerous for them.
• The litigants, who almost always want that information to be made available to themselves.
• The general public, which is presumed by the law to want the information to be disclosed in order to keep the trial process open to public scrutiny.

Courts must try to balance these views. Usually the latter two weigh considerably more heavily in the balance because litigants and the public have a constitutional right to a fair and open trial, while the Supreme Court has held that venirepersons/jurors have only an interest, which is less than a constitutional right, in having confidential information protected from public disclosure (Press-Enterprise Co. v. Superior Court, 464 U.S. 501 (1984)).

Nonetheless, there are two types of information that apparently may, under certain circumstances, be protected from public disclosure without violating the Constitution:

• Basic identifying information about venirepersons/jurors, specifically, their names and addresses, this results in an “anonymous jury.” To read about this relatively new phenomenon, click here.
• Answers to questionnaires or voir dire questions given during the jury selection process. To read about this protection, click here.

For further information, see "Making the Case for Juror Privacy" from the Center for Jury Studies of the National Center for State Courts.