Art. 35.06 CHALLENGE TO ARRAY FIRST HEARD

If someone wants to argue that the entire jury panel was picked the wrong way, that argument has to be dealt with first. This is called a "challenge to the array," and it means a party is saying there was a problem with how the whole group of potential jurors was summoned or put together, not just a problem with one juror.

The judge must listen to this challenge and make a decision on it before anyone starts questioning the potential jurors about whether they're fit to serve. This order matters because it would waste time to question individual jurors if the whole panel might get thrown out anyway. So the big-picture question about the panel gets settled before the smaller questions about each person start.