When a president shows up for jury duty

There was probably no chance at all that former President Barack Obama was going to be selected for a jury when he showed up for jury duty in Chicago today.

OBAMA!Jury duty & I just shook hands with the best president ever!! #obama #Chicago #juryduty @BarackObama @POTUS44 @MichelleObama pic.twitter.com/OxdX2g2E0F

— Angel Martinez 𓅓 (@1992AngelM) November 8, 2017

One prospective juror heeded the suggestion to bring a book. It can be pretty boring waiting to see if you got selected for a jury.

One-hundred-sixty-eight people showed up for jury duty, each assigned to one of 16 panels, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Eight panels were randomly selected to be sent home and Obama’s panel was one of them.

What are the odds?

About the blogger

Bob Collins

bcollins@mpr.org • @newscut

Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.