Former President Barack Obama served the highest office in the nation for eight years, and now he faces one the most fundamental duties of a U.S. citizen: jury duty.
Obama, who has a home in Kenwood, Chicago, has been summoned to serve jury duty next month in Cook County, Illinois, Chief Judge Timothy Evans said during a budget hearing. There is no word on the exact date yet.
Jury duty could soon be added to the list of Obama's post-presidency pastimes.
Since leaving office, he's been spotted kitesurfing in the British Virgin Islands and attending a Broadway show with Malia, his oldest daughter. Obama, along with former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Bush Sr., also lent his support to a Texas hurricane relief concert on Oct. 21.
To prepare for and accommodate his arrival, the court will take extra security measures, Evans told the Chicago Tribune. “Obviously we will make certain that he has all the accouterments that accompany a former president,” Evans said. “His safety will be uppermost in our minds.”
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Obama missed jury duty in 2010 due to a meeting with the president of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Guardian reported.
Other well-known figures like Oprah Winfrey and Lawrence Tureaud — better known as Mr. T — have been summoned to serve in Chicago courthouses as well. Oprah served as a juror in a murder trial in 2004 that ended in a conviction. Mr. T was ultimately not selected to be a juror.
Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also been called to serve jury duty post-presidency. Bush showed up at a Dallas courthouse and took pictures with other potential jurors while waiting to be called but wasn't selected as a juror.
“[Obama] made it crystal-clear to me through his representative that he would carry out his public duty as a citizen and resident of this community,” Evans told the Tribune.
