Beginning Jan. 1, only for-cause challenges will be allowed in Arizona under a landmark rule change ordered by the state Supreme Court on Monday.
Courts in the U.S. introduced peremptory challenges in the post-Civil War period, after Black Americans gained the right to serve on juries, and they've been used since then in both state and federal courts. Lawyers in civil and criminal trials can strike potential jurors for cause or based on peremptory challenges, meaning they can essentially rely on a hunch or gut feeling.
The whole way juries are selected in the US is a joke, it gives a HUGE advantage to wealthy defendants. There are law firms where all they do is advise on jury selection. Juries should be randomly selected from a pool vetted by the judge, the attorneys shouldn't be involved at all, it's letting them game the system, that's not justice.
@LovinLarge The pejorative prerogative of peremptory challenge should be impermissible in tongue twisters and spelling tests.