§ 23.002.Recess

The juror's entitlement, and the mechanism is deliberately light.

If a juror in a civil action is required to appear at a court proceeding on a religious holy day observed by the juror, the court or the court's designee shall recess the civil action until the next day the court is in session after the conclusion of the holy day.

"Shall" makes it mandatory, and the recess runs to the next session day after the holy day ends rather than for a fixed period.

The affidavit must be filed before the final selection of the jury, and must state the grounds for the recess and that the juror holds religious beliefs prohibiting participation in a court proceeding on that day.

The timing requirement does real work. Raising the conflict before selection lets the court and the parties plan around it — or seat a different panel — rather than discovering mid-trial that the case must pause.

Subsection (c) is the important part: the affidavit is proof of the facts stated and need not be corroborated. No letter from a religious leader, no evidence of the tenets, no inquiry into sincerity. The juror's sworn statement is sufficient.

That is a deliberate design choice. A court examining whether a juror's beliefs are genuine, or whether a faith prohibits attendance, would be doing something courts are poorly placed to do. Accepting the affidavit avoids it entirely.