In Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co., the US Supreme Court ruled that the equal protection component implicit in the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause required a civil litigant to provide a race-neutral reason for peremptory challenges of potential jurors in a federal trial. Race-based peremptory challenges served to violate the rights of potential jurors. As Justice Anthony M. Kennedy explained, "to permit racial exclusion in this official capacity compounds the racial insult inherent in judging a citizen by the color of his or her skin." Although some observers consider peremptory challenges essential to the adversarial system used in US courts, Justice Kennedy argued that "if race stereotypes are the price for acceptance of a jury panel as fair, the price is too high to meet the standard of the Constitution."