In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court attempted to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection by prohibiting the use of peremptory challenges to intentionally strike prospective jurors based on their race. Today, more than thirty years later, Batson’s now-familiar three-part framework is widely considered to be a toothless and inadequate decision that fails to reduce the unfair exclusion of jurors of color. In 2018, the Washington Supreme Court took a remarkable step by enacting a first-of-its-kind court rule that substantially altered the Batson framework. Specifically, the new court rule rejects Batson’s intentional discrimination requirement and instead expressly addresses implicit and institutional bias.

This Note is the first to discuss Washington’s historic court rule. In this Note, I offer both a descriptive account of the rule’s enactment and a normative assessment of the rule’s framework. Through interviews with lawyers and judges in Washington, I explore the backdrop and debate over the rule’s implementation as well as its initial effects. Considering the values at stake in jury selection, I argue that the rule’s expansion of Batson is a desirable step toward improving jury diversity and enhancing judicial integrity.