Former President Barack Obama summoned for jury duty in Chicago
CHICAGO -- Former President Barack Obama, free of a job that forced him to move to Washington for eight years, showed up to a downtown Chicago courthouse for jury duty on Wednesday morning.
The 44th president's motorcade — considerably shorter than the one he had when he lived in the White House — left his home in the Kenwood neighborhood on the city's South Side and arrived at the Richard J. Daley Center shortly after 10 a.m.
Obama — wearing a dark sport coat and dress shirt, but without a tie — waved to people who gathered outside after hearing reports that he would be reporting for jury duty.
Angel Martinez, who also had been summoned for jury duty, shared a video of the former president shaking hands with the crowd. He captioned the tweet: "OBAMA! Jury duty & I just shook hands with the best president ever!!"
Presumably, like other would-be jurors, Obama began his service by watching a decades-old video in which a much younger Lester Holt, who was a local news anchor in Chicago in the 1980s and 90s, explains the ins and outs of jury duty.
CBS Chicago reports that his stint on jury duty was short-lived.
By lunchtime, a judge had determined that the panel of potential jurors Obama was a part of would not be needed, and they were dismissed.
The former leader of the free world should still be eligible to receive the $17.20 a day that jurors are paid for performing their civic duty.
Obama is the highest-ranking former public official to be called to jury duty in Chicago. CBS Chicago reports Obama was previously called for jury duty at the Bridgeview Courthouse in January 2010, in the middle of his first term, but was excused because of his busy schedule at the time.
He is not the first former president to be called to jury duty. In 2015, former President George W. Bush answered the call in Dallas. He was not selected to sit on a jury. And in 2003, former President Bill Clinton reported for jury duty in federal court in New York City. He also was not selected.
Nor is he the first famous Chicagoan to be called to jury duty. In 2004, Oprah Winfrey was on a Chicago jury that convicted a man of murder. A decade later, Lawrence Tureaud, better known as Mr. T, showed up to a suburban Chicago courthouse for jury duty, sporting his usual Mohawk, but without the gold chains for which he is known. But despite the more subdued outfit, Mr. T was not chosen to sit on a jury.
