The following excerpt is from U.S. v. Barnes, 604 F.2d 121 (2nd Cir. 1979):
I respectfully dissent. I am troubled by the implications of today's decision and the uses to which it may be put. "Cases of notorious criminals like cases of small, miserable ones are apt to make bad law. . . . The harm in the given case may seem excusable. But the practices generated by the precedent have far-reaching consequences that are harmful and injurious beyond measurement." Abel v. United States, 362 U.S. 217, 241-42, 80 S.Ct. 683, 698, 4 L.Ed.2d 668 (1960) (Douglas, J., dissenting). In my judgment, the district court's decision not to disclose the names and addresses of prospective jurors and at the same time to prohibit inquiry into their ethnic and religious backgrounds on the Voir dire was error. I would reverse the judgments of conviction and remand for a new trial.
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