In the 1971 case Alexander v. Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a criminal defendant's constitutional rights were violated when jury selection was influenced by racial discrimination. The petitioner, an African American man convicted of rape in Louisiana state court, argued that his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection under law had been infringed upon due to systematic exclusion of black individuals from grand juries over several decades in East Baton Rouge Parish where he was indicted and tried. The Supreme Court agreed with him after examining statistical evidence showing significant racial disparities in jury composition over time which could not be explained by chance alone. Therefore, it concluded that there had indeed been a violation of equal protection clause as discriminatory practices were used during jury selection process.

In the dissenting opinion for Alexander v. Louisiana, it was argued that there was no constitutional violation in the jury selection process. The dissenters believed that while racial discrimination did exist in society, not every disparity or imbalance could be attributed to intentional bias or prejudice. They pointed out that statistical disparities alone were insufficient evidence of systematic exclusion from jury service based on race and thus did not necessarily constitute a breach of equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment. Furthermore, they contended that the majority's decision would set an unworkable precedent where courts would have to scrutinize every aspect of juror selection for potential biases, which could lead to endless litigation and challenges over juries' composition.