In re Gault

Facts of the Case

Gerald F. Gault was 15 years old at the time of his offense. Gault and a friend had been accused of making obscene phone calls to a neighbor. Gault was apprehended and questioned without his parents being given any notice from the authorities. Gault's mother was given a handwritten note from the juvenile probation officer, informing her and her husband of the delinquency hearing a week later, which she attended. However, neither Gault nor his parents received notification of the specific charges against him or the potential repercussions for Gault prior to the informal delinquency hearing. Gault was neither given nor advised of an opportunity to have a lawyer present to advise or represent him. At the hearing, the only evidence against him was hearsay evidence concerning the claims of the complaining neighbor, who did not appear, and a single prior juvenile charge of theft. In the hearing, Gault admitted to dialing the neighbor who had made the complaint but stated that he had spoken to her. Mrs. Gault's request that the neighbor be present to identify the caller was specifically denied. Gault was found to be delinquent and was sentenced to up to 6 years in the State Industrial School, which was a juvenile facility that many considered to be no less than a prison for juveniles. Had Gault been an adult, he would have faced a maximum of 60 days in jail. Because Gault was not entitled to an appeal from the delinquency hearing under the state juvenile justice system, his case challenged the law itself through a petition for habeas corpus, which is a writ inquiring into the lawfulness of the restraint of a detained person.

Decision and Reasoning of the Supreme Court

The issue before the U.S. Supreme Court on appeal was whether Gault was entitled to some of the same due process rights that adults had under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Court found that juveniles facing detention in juvenile justice proceedings were entitled to the rights to notice of the charges, to counsel, to be silent (i.e., against self-incrimination), to confront witnesses against him or her, to a transcript of the proceeding, and to an appeal to a higher court.

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