George W. Maschke wrote on May 5^th, 2015 at 9:41am:

New documents were filed in U.S. v. Doug Williams yesterday: United States' Proposed Jury Instructions (link fixed) dated 4 May 2015. Among other things, the prosecution wishes the judge to instruct the jury that "[a]n internal investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into the possible commission of a federal offense" and "[a] pre-employment suitability determination and security background investigation conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection" qualify as official proceedings within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b) (Witness Tampering). United States' Requested Voire Dire Questions dated 4 May 2015. The prosecution wishes to identify (and presumably eliminate) any potential jurors who have taken a polygraph "test" before, or who have a family member who has done so, or who have concerns about the use of polygraph examinations. Trial Brief of United States dated 4 May 2015. Prosecution seeks to exclude any evidence or argument regarding the reliability of polygraph examinations, entrapment, or the defendant's prior good acts or lack of a criminal record.

From my standpoint -- both as a polygraph consultant and as a full member of the American Polygraph Association -- the second bullet point is particularly striking.

Clearly, it's an effort to gain some valuable insight relative to a prospective juror's potential bias.

I wonder how the prosecution (or the defense, for that matter) would view potential jurors who are devotees of that genre of daytime television shows that feature the "lie detector"...