The former president showed up to a courthouse to fulfill his civic duty, and Chicago stopped and stared.
CHICAGO — Barack Obama, former leader of the free world and current Illinois taxpayer, returned home on Wednesday for that most somber of civic obligations: jury duty.
And as much as Chicago tried to play it cool, people here were entranced by the sight of a former president reporting to Room 1700 of a county courthouse, plopping a red juror sticker on his jacket and earning the $17.20 daily stipend — almost enough to pay for parking.
“He was willing to go through everything everybody else had to go through,” said Timothy C. Evans, the chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, who spent part of the morning meeting with Mr. Obama, something not everybody else who comes for jury duty goes through.
What exactly was the fixation with seeing Mr. Obama, in a bland, cramped waiting room? For some, it seemed, it was the curiosity of someone like him doing something mundane, just like everyone else. (What might be next? Mr. Obama takes the driver’s test? Mr. Obama mows the lawn?) For others, it was the possibility — however remote — that Mr. Obama might actually be picked to serve on a jury. (Would the other jurors feel compelled to make him the foreman? And what might a defendant think if he walked into a courtroom and saw Mr. Obama over in the jury box?)
As it played out in real life, Mr. Obama had to go through some things most jurors do not. News reporters staked out his South Side home and tracked his trip to the downtown courthouse. Adoring members of the public crowded by the jury room, cellphone cameras earnestly pointed inside, where they hoped to catch a glimpse of him. Fellow jurors brought books for him to sign and snapped photos that they posted online.
His arrival injected an odd, cocktail party feel to a room that usually seems more like the waiting room at a doctor’s office — silent, with people huddled alone over books and crossword puzzles trying to pass the time. In a open-collar dress shirt and sport coat, Mr. Obama swept into the room with his entourage of security, going down the line shaking hands.
“Thanks everybody for serving on the jury, or at least being willing to,” Mr. Obama was recorded saying . “This looks like Chicago right here.”
As excited as people were to see Mr. Obama, it was another question entirely whether he could ever conceivably end up on a jury. Would lawyers really want to argue a case in front of a Harvard-educated constitutional scholar — not to mention a former president? Plus, where would you put the Secret Service detail during deliberations?
“If there was a defamation case or something that involved the Constitution, it would be really interesting,” said Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant. “If someone really believed in their case and wanted smart people, he could have been on their radar.”
But having a former president in the jury box would also have drawbacks. “It would be such a sideshow,” Mr. Tuerkheimer said.
Of course, Mr. Obama was not the first political celebrity to receive a dreaded jury summons. George W. Bush reported for jury duty in 2015 in Texas, though he was not seated. And Joseph R. Biden Jr., then Mr. Obama’s vice president, was dismissed from a Delaware jury pool in 2011.
But there was something about seeing Mr. Obama, only 10 months removed from the presidency, back in Chicago and smiling through a chore of citizenship that resonated with people in this city where he kindled his political career.
One man, apparently a courthouse worker, arrived early wearing a winter hat that said “OBAMA.” A barista working the early shift at the courthouse Starbucks giddily told a co-worker “it’s a possibility” that they would see the ex-president. One potential juror placed a phone call after spotting the phalanx of news cameras: “I think Barack Obama’s going to be here today,” she said.
Alas, though the prospect of the questions he might have been asked was fodder for much discussion, Mr. Obama never had a chance to even be questioned as a possible juror. After several hours, Mr. Obama and the rest of Juror Panel 6 was sent home without being called into a courtroom.
Judge Evans thought there was still a lesson to be learned.
“If the former president of the United States takes his time to come,” he said, “anybody ought to be willing to come.”
