Alexis de Tocqueville was so impressed with American jurisprudence that he called jury duty a free school for learning personal rights and practical law. But for decades being summoned to jury duty taught me different lessons—how to game the system and how to avoid serving. I was the Queen of Deferments: I was self-employed, I was a single mother, I moved and left no forwarding address. I thought serving on a jury would be annoying and time-consuming. “When you go to court you are putting your life in the hands of twelve people who aren’t smart enough to avoid jury duty,” someone once told me. I agreed. When the United States District Court finally caught up with me five years ago and I went downtown to serve like everyone else, I learned more about personal rights and practical law than I ever wanted to know. Jury duty wasn’t just annoying and time consuming, it was haunting and heartbreaking.

IN A NORMAL WEEK as a writer and a teacher my big decisions are small: sushi ...

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