In re GaultThe Supreme Court Establishes

Rules for Juveniles.

Gerald Francis Gault was a boy who lived in Gila County, Arizona. Early in 1964, police arrested him for being with a friend who stole a wallet from a woman's purse. For that offense, the juvenile court ordered Gault to be on probation for six months. Probation lets the court supervise someone who has broken the law.

What happened first?

On June 8, 1964, while Gault was still on probation, a neighbor named Mrs. Cook complained to the police that Gault and a friend made an obscene telephone call to her.

Police arrested Gault while his parents were at work and took him to the Children's Detention Home.

What started this case?

When Gault's mother arrived home, she had to search to find her son in the detention home.

There Superintendent Flagg told Mrs. Gault that there would be a hearing the next day in juvenile court.

The juvenile court held two hearings for Gault's case, one on June 9 and one on June 15.

The police and the court never told Gault what law he was accused of breaking.

They did not explain that he could have an attorney represent him in court.

The court did not even require Mrs. Cook to testify against Gault.

Based on the testimony, Judge McGhee decided that Gault was a juvenile delinquent.

He ordered Gault to be confined in the State Industrial School, a juvenile detention center, until he was twenty-one.

Gault was only fifteen at the time, so he faced six years in detention. If Gault had been an adult, his crime would have been punishable by only two months in prison.

The Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says states may not take away a person's liberty, meaning freedom, without due process of law.

Under the Sixth Amendment, a trial is not fair unless the defendant has notice of the charges against him, the right to have an attorney, and the chance to face and cross-examine witnesses against him.

Under the Fifth Amendment, the right against self-incrimination says defendants cannot be forced to make confessions or to testify against themselves.

Juvenile courts are not supposed to be run like criminal courts. They are supposed to help juvenile delinquents become lawful adults by reforming them, not punishing them. For this reason, Arizona's juvenile courts did not give juvenile defendants the same constitutional rights as criminal defendants.

Arizona, however, sent Gault to a detention center for six years for making an obscene telephone call. Gault's parents did not think the state should be allowed to do that without giving their son the same rights as criminal defendants

With an 8–1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Gaults, releasing their son from detention. Writing for the Court, Justice Abe Fortas said "neither the Fourteenth Amendment nor the Bill of Rights is for adults alone."

With Gault, the Supreme Court said juvenile defendants must have notice of the charges against them, notice of their right to have an attorney, the right to confront and cross-examine witnesses against them, and the right not to testify against themselves.

Significance of In re Gault

Supreme Court 1967

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January 6, 2011