Until the ruling in Taylor v. Louisiana (1975), women in Louisiana were not required to sit on juries unless they volunteered. Billy Jean Taylor was arrested in September 1971 in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. He was charged on counts of kidnapping, robbery, and rape, and the trial was set to begin in April 1972. The day before the trial, Taylor filed a motion to disallow the jury for being unrepresentative of the population. Under Louisiana law, women could only serve on a jury if they had already actively registered to do so, whereas men did not have to register but were considered for duty automatically. In St. Tammany, only one in five women were registered for jury service despite making up over half of the individuals eligible. The 175 jury candidates selected before the trial were all men.