Q: According to a 1989 article in the Chicago Tribune, what kind of transportation workers are exempt from jury duty in Chicago?
A: Ferry pilots.
It goes back to the time before Chicago was stitched together with bridges, as it is today. Back then, ferry operators (“constant ferrymen”) we’re so vital to the functioning of the city that they could not be spared to spend time working on a jury.
Source: Chicago Tribune Magazine, June 25, 1989, page 10.
