Minnesota, Breastfeeding and Jury Duty Help

[bluegreenturtle]

I am lost...I cannot seem to figure out if MN has an exemption for breastfeeding mothers from Jury Duty. Everywhere I visit mentions MN in a list of 5 states that do but all I can find is a law that was proposed but never passed. See below. My sis is being told she must complete jury duty despite being a full time stay at home breastfeeding mom and she needs to know the laws before tom morning when she meets with the judge. If there is none she will try other things but in the meantime I would like to have the laws clarified.

This is what I have found...but it doesn't ever seem to have passed.

Minnesota. 2000 Minn. Laws Ch. 2695 allows a nursing mother, upon request,
to be excused from jury service if she is not employed outside of her home and if she is responsible for the daily care of the child.

Anybody know the story?

[polykow]

I just got a letter calling me for juri duty in MN and I sent the questionary back
There is a place where you can asked to be excused and write down why.
I wrote I was the caregiver of my two children including a nursing child.
I did not write how old she was ( she is 30 months old). But I did got a letter back saying I was excused and did not have to show up.

[bluegreenturtle]

Thanks for responding polykow. I had a similar experience a couple of years ago as well..but they are not making it so easy on my sister. They have rejected her request for an exemption and are making her meet with the judge before the selection process tom. We are hoping that the judge will excuse her but I guess we won't know until tom. I was just hoping there was a law in place to back her up.

[Swan3]

Let us know how it goes, hopefully he'll be understanding. I can't believe they'd fight her on that.

[polykow]

can't she get a letter from her ped saying the child needs her brestmilk and that her being away will damper her supply and she would need to pump every 2-3 hours with no garantees?
tell you sister to explain that to the judge that unless she can top the trial and pump every so often she will loose her supply.
also most states will exempt is she is the solecaregiver of her children
good luck

[Koloe]

I'd be interested in how it turns out. My sister was just summoned to jury duty from Sept-December and she is sole provider of 1 child and due to give birth in October. I told her to make sure they know that. And that she would be bringing the newborn with if they insisted on her doing jury duty after giving birth. But I have not looked up the MN laws yet.

[mamajake]

As far as I can tell, there is no helpful statute if she is being called for jury duty in state court in MN. There is an out if she is being called in federal court in MN. This is a state court summons?

[bluegreenturtle]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. She spoke to the judge and he offered her a 6 month extension...she explained that this would not be long enough so he extended that to a year. Basically, once he heard that she was a primary caretaker and breastfeeding he did not put up a resistance to her postponing, although the time period is too short in my opinion. She will have to go back in a year if she wants more time. She is happy with this outcome, the judge was very understanding...which I am glad for in such a small town.

MamaJake--I knew you would know the ropes on this. It is a county level jury she was called for...and as far as I could tell the county does not offer any special exemptions for caretakers or the breastfeeding, which is why I was hoping MN had a law in place. Anyway all is good for now...let's hope that a law gets put in place here eventually. I know I will be writing some representatives.

Good luck to your sister Koloe!

Thanks everyone.

[mamajake]

Too bad she is going to have to go through this again in a year, though. But I am glad she is pleased for now.