State legislators should embrace the late civil rights icon John Lewis’ concept of “good, necessary trouble” and do away with the peremptory challenge, one of our criminal justice system’s most reliable sources of race-based disenfranchisement.

Under state and federal law, attorneys may invoke a set number of peremptory challenges to exclude a potential juror from service. No explanation is necessary, and while opposing parties may object, they must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the exclusion was based on race, ethnicity or sex.

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