Brown, Goldstein & Levy Managing Partner Jessie Weber was recently interviewed in a Straight Arrow News article entitled, “Civil rights group, blind woman says jury disqualification a ‘systemic’ issue in New York,” about a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of a blind woman from jury service in New York—a case that highlights systemic barriers facing blind people who seek to participate in one of the most important civic duties in a democracy.
Jessie, along with Michelle Fraling and Eve Hill, represents Emeline Lakrout, a Paralympic gold medalist who was summoned for jury service but ultimately dismissed after the court and attorneys raised concerns about whether her blindness could be accommodated. Rather than exploring assistive technology and services that would enable Ms. Lakrout to participate fully in jury service, the court excused her from service. That prompted an October 2024 lawsuit, which a federal judge later dismissed. The case is now pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
In her interview with Straight Arrow News, Jessie explained why Ms. Lakrout’s experience reflects a broader accessibility problem within New York’s court system. The issue, she said, is not simply whether a single judge wrongly excluded a blind individual from jury service. It’s whether the court system in which that judge operates has the policies, technology, and procedures necessary to ensure that people with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in jury service. Without that degree of proactive planning, she explained, the judge’s decision to exclude Ms. Lakrout was entirely predictable.
“When we don’t plan for accessibility, and we shut out people with disabilities, we’re not getting a representative sampling of the community in which the case is being heard,” Jessie told the publication. “That’s antithetical to how our democracy is designed.”
The case challenges a system that, according to Ms. Lakrout’s lawsuit, lacks adequate procedures for accommodating blind jurors. Those barriers can make it easier to exclude a prospective juror than to determine which accommodations would allow that person to serve.
For Ms. Lakrout’s team of lawyers at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, the case is about ensuring that accessibility is built into the justice system, not treated as an afterthought. Blind people should not have to overcome a lack of planning or preparation by the courts simply to fulfill their civic obligations.
The firm also represents Albert Elia and the National Federation of the Blind of New York State in another lawsuit that alleges systemic discrimination against blind individuals who report for jury duty. In that case, the court failed to accommodate Mr. Elia after he reported for grand jury service. Mr. Elia was sworn in as a grand juror in Kings County Supreme Court in fall 2024. Although he met all the requirements to serve as a juror, the court excluded him from deliberating on cases that involved video or photo evidence, under the incorrect and harmful assumption that he could not interpret that evidence because he is blind. Mr. Elia was ultimately dismissed from grand jury service altogether. The court refused to allow Mr. Elia to use assistive technology or receive verbal descriptions of evidence, which would have allowed him to fulfill his civic duty alongside his fellow grand jurors.
Several civil rights organizations have joined in a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Ms. Lakrout’s appeal, underscoring the broader implications of the case for equal access to jury service and all aspects of civic life.
ABOUT JESSIE WEBER
Jessie Weber enjoys helping clients navigate a diverse range of difficult legal issues, with a focus on appellate litigation, civil rights, including disability and LGBTQ rights, and employment law, including wage and hour cases. She currently represents blind students and the National Federation of the Blind in litigation against the Los Angeles Community College District, and obtained a jury verdict finding LACCD violated plaintiffs’ rights under Title II of the ADA by denying them an equal educational experience, including through the use of inaccessible technology, and awarding the individual plaintiffs more than $240,000 in damages—a verdict recently reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Jessie is an experienced appellate litigator. She has argued before the Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuit Courts of Appeals and has also submitted briefs in the United States Supreme Court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and in state appellate courts in Maryland and Washington State. She is known for her groundbreaking work obtaining equal access for individuals with disabilities to voting, websites, and government information and services. Learn more about Jessie here.
ABOUT BROWN, GOLDSTEIN & LEVY
Founded in 1982, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a law firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, with an office in Washington, DC. The firm is nationally recognized in a wide variety of practice areas, including complex civil and commercial litigation, civil rights, health care, family law, and criminal defense. Above all else, Brown, Goldstein & Levy is a client-centered law firm that brings decades of experience and passionate, effective advocacy to your fight for justice.