CHICAGO _ The former leader of the free world reported for Cook County jury duty Wednesday morning.
Barack Obama, who owns a home in Chicago's South Side Kenwood neighborhood, was expected to join a pool of prospective jurors at the Daley Center, a source told the Chicago Tribune.
Although he's the only would-be juror with a Secret Service detail, Obama will be paid the same rate, $17.20 a day. Prospective jurors are allowed to bring and use cellphones while waiting in the jury assembly area, so there's a possibility that Obama selfies will soon begin floating around on social media.
That's what happened in 2015, when former President George W. Bush posed for photos with his fellow prospective jurors while waiting in a Dallas courthouse. He was not selected to sit on a jury.
Obama won't be the first high-profile Chicagoan to be considered for jury service.
Jurors sit in rows of black plastic chairs in the assembly room on the 17th floor. They are allowed to bring in cellphones and reading material.
In 2004, Oprah Winfrey sat on a Cook County jury at what is now the Leighton Criminal Court Building. She and 11 other jurors convicted a man of first-degree murder for shooting a man to death over $50.
A decade later, Mister T, whose real name is Lawrence Tureaud, appeared for jury duty at the Rolling Meadows courthouse but wasn't chosen.
Obama isn't the first president to be enlisted for jury duty after leaving office. In addition to Bush, Bill Clinton reported for duty in federal court in New York City in a gang shooting case in 2003. He was eventually dismissed.
