In Taylor v. Louisiana, 419 U.S. 522 (1975), the U.S. Supreme Court examined the constitutionality of Art. VII, § 41 of the Louisiana Constitution, and Art. 402 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure, which provided that a woman should not be selected for jury service unless she had previously filed a written declaration of her desire to be subject to jury service. A male appellant alleged that women were systematically excluded from the venire and that he would therefore be deprived of what he claimed to be his federal constitutional right to "a fair trial by jury of a representative segment of the community . . . ." The Court ruled that the Louisiana jury-selection system deprived appellant of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment right to an impartial jury trial.
The Supreme Court decided Taylor v. Louisiana on January 21, 1975. The Louisiana legislature had also taken action. Article 402 was repealed by Acts 1974, Ex.Sess., No. 20, §1. It was signed by the Governor on November 5, 1974, with an effective date of January 1, 1975.
