In that case defendants, officials
of certain labor unions, were convicted of extortion, by collecting
large sums from contractors for assisting them in avoiding labor
troubles. From a "blue ribbon" jury certain categories of persons
qualified for ordinary jury duty are excluded; and on this ground
defendants claimed that in being tried by such a jury they had been
denied "equal protection of the law" and deprived of "due process of
law," but especially the former, alleging that such juries had a higher
record of conviction than ordinary juries and that their sympathies were
"conservative." The Court, speaking by Justice Jackson, answered that "a
state is not required to try all offenses to the same forum," but
conceded that "a discretion, even if vested in the court, to shunt a
defendant before a jury so chosen as greatly to lessen his chances while
others accused of a like offense are tried by a jury so drawn as to be
more favorable to them, would hardly be 'equal protection of the
laws.'"[1213] However, he asserted that the New York statute authorizing
"blue ribbon" juries "does not exclude, or authorize the clerk to
exclude, any person or class because of race, creed, color or
occupation. It imposes no qualification of an economic nature beyond
that imposed by the concededly valid general panel statute. Each of the
grounds of elimination is reasonably and closely related to the juror's
suitability for the kind of service the special panel requires or to his
fitness to judge the kind of cases for which it is most frequently
utilized. Not all of the grounds of elimination would appear relevant to
the issues of the present case. But we know of no right of defendants to
have a specially constituted panel which would include all persons who
might be fitted to hear their particular and unique case."[1214] He held
further that defendants had failed to shoulder the necessary burden of
proof in support of their allegations of discrimination, and added: "At
most, the proof shows lack of proportional representation and there is
an utter deficiency of proof that this was the result of a purpose to
discriminate against this group as such. The uncontradicted evidence is
that no person was excluded because of his occupation or economic
status. All were subjected to the same tests of intelligence,
citizenship and understanding of English. The state's right to apply
these tests is not open to doubt even though they disqualify, especia