Provides an exemption from jury duty for breastfeeding women; allows that such breastfeeding mother's jury duty shall be postponed up to two years after the date on which such service otherwise is to commence.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5424
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 12, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CRESPO -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BARRETT,
BLAKE, BRAUNSTEIN, DAVILA, HEVESI, HYNDMAN, JAFFEE, JEAN-PIERRE,
JOYNER, RAIA, SIMON, SIMOTAS, STECK -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to providing an exemption
from jury duty for breastfeeding women
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraphs 1 and 2 of subdivision (a) of section 517 of the
2 judiciary law, paragraph 1 as amended and paragraph 2 as added by chap-
3 ter 86 of the laws of 1995, are amended to read as follows:
4 (1) Except as otherwise provided in paragraph two of this subdivision,
5 the commissioner of jurors may, in his or her discretion, on the appli-
6 cation of a prospective juror who has been summoned to attend, excuse
7 such prospective juror from a part or the whole of the time of jury
8 service or may postpone the time of jury service to a later day during
9 the same or any subsequent term of the court, provided that if the
10 prospective juror is a breastfeeding mother and submits with her appli-
11 cation a note from a physician indicating that the prospective juror is
12 breastfeeding, the commissioner shall excuse the prospective juror or
13 postpone the time of jury service. The application shall be presented to
14 the commissioner at such time and in such manner as he or she shall
15 require, except that an application for postponement of the initial date
16 for jury service may be made by telephone.
17 (2) An application for postponement of jury service shall be granted
18 hereunder provided: (i) such service has not already been postponed or
19 excused, (ii) the application is made at such time and in such manner as
20 the commissioner of jurors requires, and (iii) the postponement is to a
21 date certain when the court is in session not more than six months after
22 the date on which such service otherwise is to commence and such date is
23 selected by the prospective juror, provided that if the prospective
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03064-01-9
A. 5424 2
1 juror is a breastfeeding mother, the postponement date may be a date
2 certain up to two years after the date on which such service otherwise
3 is to commence.
4 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
