August 13, 1937

Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt took part in a conference held at Alumnae House under the auspices of the State Federation of Business and Professional Women and chaired by Kathryn Starbuck ’11. The topic of the day was the development of a statewide jury service training program for women. Mrs. Roosevelt noted that she would not be eligible for jury duty “as long as my husband remains in the White House” but that she intended to take the jury duty course when it was offered in Dutchess County in the fall.

Responding to a participant’s concern about jury members’ being locked up overnight, she replied, according to The New York Times, “Now, really, that doesn’t happen very often, and in this age when we travel as much by air, it never occurs to us to be disturbed if we are locked up all night in an airplane, so why should be get excited about chances of being locked up in a jury room? It isn’t so different.”

The New York Times