What to Bring to Jury Duty
and what gets confiscated at the door
A practical guide so you don't start your day in the security line holding a knife.

Most people learn what they should have brought to jury duty only after they've already handed it to a sheriff's deputy and watched it disappear into a plastic bin. A pocket knife carried out of habit. A laptop bag flagged because of a forgotten charging cable that resembles a prohibited item on the x-ray. A thermos that won't clear the scanner because nobody thought to mention that sealed containers sometimes don't.

What follows is the most specific guide you'll find on this: what every courthouse lets through, what most will confiscate, what varies by jurisdiction, and the few things that will genuinely make an eight-hour wait survivable. Jury duty is inconvenient enough without starting the day arguing with a metal detector.

The documents and identification you actually need

Your summons is the single most important thing you can bring, and it's the one item most people forget. Print it out. Yes, many courthouses now accept digital summons on a phone screen, but not all do — and if you arrive at a courthouse that requires the paper copy and you don't have it, you may be turned away or sent to a separate administrative line that costs you forty-five minutes of your morning. The safest move is to print it.

Beyond the summons, bring a government-issued photo ID. A driver's license works everywhere. A state ID card works everywhere. A passport works everywhere. A work badge with a photo does not. A library card does not. If your license is expired, bring the actual passport — most courts have no tolerance for expired IDs because their purpose is identity verification, not proof of driving eligibility, but security staff at the courthouse level often apply a stricter reading.

If your summons instructs you to report to a specific division or department — say, a civil court in a multi-building complex — write that information down separately. You will be nervous, the building will be confusing, and cell service in the basement jury assembly room will be somewhere between bad and nonexistent. A handwritten note is more reliable than a screenshot on a dying battery.

Some courts also ask jurors to bring proof of prior jury service if they believe they've served too recently to be called again. The threshold varies: federal courts generally exempt you for two years after service; state courts vary from one year to three. If that exemption applies to you, bring the documentation — a prior juror badge, a prior summons marked as served, or a completion letter. The clerk's office won't take your word for it.

What to bring to stay comfortable through a long day

Jury assembly rooms are essentially airports without the shops. You will sit. Then you will wait. Then you will possibly sit in a different room and wait there. Plan for six to eight hours even if you are eventually dismissed by noon, because you won't know when you'll be dismissed until it happens.

Food and drinks: Most courthouses have a cafeteria, a vending area, or at minimum a coffee machine, but the cafeteria may not open until 9 a.m. and may run out of the edible options by 10. Bring snacks — something that doesn't crinkle loudly, because you will be in a quiet room with other annoyed people. A small zip-lock bag of almonds or granola travels without issue. Sealed water bottles pass through security at most courts, though there are exceptions: some federal courthouses prohibit outside food and drink entirely, which they should state in the summons instructions.

Entertainment: Download everything before you arrive. Streaming services require Wi-Fi or cell data, and jury assembly rooms often block or severely limit both. Netflix, Spotify, Audible, and similar apps all let you download content for. Do this the night before. A Kindle loaded with several books is ideal — long battery, no bright screen disturbing neighbors, no distracting notifications. A physical book is equally good and has zero battery anxiety.

Your phone charger: Bring it. Assembly rooms in many courts now have charging stations or accessible wall outlets, but they're rarely labeled and they're first-come, first-served. A portable battery pack — a simple 10,000 mAh unit from Anker or similar — is worth having, because your phone is your lifeline for calls, emails, and entertainment.

Cash: Small bills. Vending machines are common, card readers in those machines are not. The ATM in the building, if there is one, will charge a fee. Bring $10 to $20 in ones and fives.

Layers: Courthouses run cold. Not slightly cool — aggressively, inexplicably cold. Bring a sweater or a light jacket regardless of what the forecast says outside, because the forecast outside is irrelevant to the climate control decisions of a 1970s federal building.

What courthouse security will confiscate at the door

This is the section that keeps people from losing their Swiss Army knife. Courthouse security operates under rules set partly by federal or state statute and partly by the individual court's administrative order. The overlap is large enough to give you reliable guidance.

Weapons and anything that looks like one: This is absolute and non-negotiable. Firearms — including those you have a concealed carry permit for — are prohibited in virtually every courthouse in the United States. Most state courts explicitly bar permit holders from carrying inside, and federal courts do so by statute. A firearm discovered at the checkpoint will result in the weapon being held and, depending on jurisdiction and whether you declared it, potentially an interaction with law enforcement beyond the security staff.

Knives of any kind, including pocket knives and box cutters, are confiscated. A Leatherman or Victorinox multitool with a blade counts as a knife. Even a small penknife on a keychain counts. If you carry one habitually, move it to your car before you go inside, not after you've already handed it to the deputy.

Prohibited electronics: This is where it gets complicated and varies more by courthouse. Laptops are allowed in many state courts but prohibited in a significant number of federal courts because they can be used to record or photograph court proceedings. Tablets occupy a gray zone — often allowed if you remove them from the bag for screening, sometimes prohibited in the same courts that prohibit laptops. Smartwatches have been challenged at some courts because they have cameras; most courts still wave them through, but it is not guaranteed. Check the specific court's website.

Aerosols and sharp objects: Nail files, scissors with blades over four inches, and aerosol cans follow TSA-adjacent logic even though the comparison isn't perfect. Small nail scissors often pass. A full-size can of hairspray does not.

Medications: Prescription medications travel through without issue if they are in the original labeled pharmacy container. Loose pills in a pocket or an unlabeled container are regularly questioned and sometimes denied entry. If you take daily medication, bring it in its bottle.

The gray-zone items that might or might not get through

Not everything is clear-cut, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. These are the items where the outcome genuinely depends on the specific courthouse, the specific security officer, and occasionally the specific day.

Laptops: Permitted in most state courts, prohibited in many federal courts. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, for example, has explicit restrictions on electronic recording devices that are often read broadly by security staff. Meanwhile, many county courthouses actively encourage jurors to bring laptops to stay productive. Look up your courthouse specifically — not the general policy of the court system, but that building's standing order or juror instructions page.

Knitting needles: You will find people who swear they bring their knitting to jury duty every time without incident, and people who had their bamboo circular needles confiscated. The honest answer is that metal needles are more likely to be flagged and bamboo or plastic needles are more likely to pass, but neither outcome is guaranteed. If knitting is how you manage a long wait, bring something you'd be willing to lose or surrender.

Vaping devices and e-cigarettes: The device itself will usually pass through security because it's battery-powered and doesn't trigger weapons protocols. Using it anywhere on the property is a different story — courthouse campuses are almost universally smoke-free and most treat vaping as smoking. You'll be able to bring it in; you won't be able to use it inside.

Umbrellas: Full-size umbrellas with a pointed metal tip have, in documented instances, been flagged and held. Most pass without comment. Compact fold-up umbrellas are never an issue. If rain is likely, bring the compact version and save yourself the uncertainty.

Earbuds vs. over-ear headphones: Both generally clear security. Noise-canceling headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM5 or Bose QuietComfort 45 are a genuine quality-of-life improvement for a long assembly room day. Bring them. They go into the bin like shoes at an airport and come back out the other side.

What to wear — and how it affects your day

Attire has no bearing on what gets confiscated, but it has significant bearing on whether you get selected for a jury, how long you'll last in a cold room, and whether you'll spend the day physically comfortable or miserable.

Courts do not have explicit dress codes for jurors the way they do for attorneys, but individual judges can and do comment on — and occasionally ask about — what jurors wear. The practical standard in most jurisdictions is business casual: no ripped jeans, no clothing with visible political slogans, no overtly offensive graphics. This matters especially during voir dire, the questioning process where attorneys are actively forming impressions of you as a potential juror. A polo and khakis or a casual dress reads as neutral. A T-shirt that makes a strong political statement does not, and an attorney who notices it may use a peremptory challenge to remove you from the pool.

More practically: wear layers. The combination of a cold assembly room and the possibility of spending hours in a deliberation room — which may be equally cold and entirely beyond your control — means that your comfort depends entirely on what you brought, not the thermostat. A zip-up hoodie or cardigan you can take on and off is the right call.

Comfortable shoes matter more than you'd think. You may walk more than expected: from the parking area to the building, from security to the assembly room, from the assembly room to the courtroom, up and down courthouse corridors if you're assigned to a trial. Court buildings are not set up for pedestrian comfort. Wear shoes you can stand in for an hour without noticing them.

Leave the belt with a large metal buckle at home if you can, or be prepared to remove it at security. Same for necklaces with large metal pendants. The less you have to wrangle at the checkpoint, the smoother your morning.

What to do if security takes something you need

It happens. You forgot the pocket knife was in the jacket pocket. The backup battery pack triggered a secondary screening. Your medication is in a travel pill organizer instead of the pharmacy bottle and they're asking questions you weren't prepared for.

First: stay calm, because this is a security checkpoint and agitation is the one behavior that reliably makes the situation worse. Security staff at courthouse entrances are generally county sheriff's deputies or court security officers — they are not the TSA, and their interaction style varies from courthouse to courthouse, but they have authority over what enters the building and they will use it.

For confiscated items, ask specifically: will this be held for me to retrieve when I leave, or is it being permanently surrendered? Most courthouses hold small items — pocket knives, keys with prohibited attachments — and return them at the end of the day. Some do not. Knowing in advance prevents the unpleasant surprise of asking for your item at 5 p.m. and being told there's no process for that.

For medications, the fix is prevention: call the courthouse clerk's office the day before and ask how they handle prescription medications at security. They have a process. It usually involves showing the original prescription label and possibly speaking to a supervisor, but it is a routine request they handle regularly. A pharmacist can print a duplicate label for a small pill organizer in under five minutes — this is the easiest solution if carrying the full bottle isn't practical.

If something is confiscated that you believe was wrongly taken, you can ask to speak to the security supervisor. This is a reasonable request and courts have supervisory staff precisely for disputed calls. You will not always win the argument, but for a genuinely ambiguous item — a tool that doesn't have a blade, a device that's been flagged incorrectly — it's worth making the ask calmly and specifically. This is a Leatherman Rebar; can you show me which component violates the policy? is a more effective question than a general objection.

The federal courthouse vs. the state courthouse: where the rules diverge most

Federal courts and state courts operate under different administrative structures, and the practical differences in what jurors can bring are real enough to address directly.

Federal courthouses — the ones handling U.S. District Court cases — are consistently stricter. This is partly because federal courts handle higher-profile cases with more security implications, and partly because the U.S. Marshals Service, which oversees federal court security, has national standards that are more restrictive than the patchwork of state and county rules. In a federal courthouse, expect: stricter electronics policies (laptops often prohibited or required to be left at a security desk), more thorough bag screening, and stricter interpretation of what constitutes a prohibited item. The Southern District of Texas, the Northern District of Illinois, the Eastern District of New York — these facilities operate more like airport security than a county courthouse in a mid-sized city.

State courthouses, run at the county level, vary enormously. A rural county courthouse in Montana may have a single deputy and a walk-through metal detector and wave you through without a second look at your canvas bag. A large urban court complex — the Los Angeles Superior Court's downtown campus, the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago, the Manhattan Criminal Court building — operates closer to federal standards in terms of screening thoroughness.

The single most useful thing you can do the night before jury duty is find the actual juror information page for your specific courthouse — not the state court system's general page — and read what it says about prohibited items. Courts that have specific restrictions almost always list them. Courts that don't say anything specific are usually the less-restrictive ones, but calling the clerk's office to ask takes three minutes and removes all uncertainty.

One practical note on timing: federal courts and large urban state courts have the longest security lines at the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. opening window, because every juror, attorney, and court employee is trying to get through at once. Arrive fifteen minutes earlier than your summons requires. You will not regret it. You will absolutely regret being late to a courthouse because you underestimated the line, since judges are not forgiving about tardiness in jurors and the deputy clerks who track attendance are thorough.