| Abstrakt: |
Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court issued what is arguably the most consequential decision in the history of the American juvenile court. In re Gault imported to the juvenile court some of the criminal court's core constitutional protections, including, most notably, the right to counsel. Two of the Court's primary objectives in Gault were to enhance procedural fairness and alleviate racial injustice in the juvenile court. Yet, a half century later, neither of these objectives has been realized. Gault's procedural deficits are well-documented and the subject of numerous publications commemorating the decision's 50th Anniversary. This Article examines the second objective. We claim that Gault did not just fail to alleviate racial injustice in the juvenile court; it may have exacerbated it. By endorsing a formal and adversarial court process for children, but failing to confer the full panoply of constitutional rights afforded adults, Gault helped transform the juvenile court from a quasisocial welfare agency into a second-class criminal court that metes out the punishment but lacks the protection of its adult counterpart. Compounding the toll of this institutional reorientation was a corresponding political backlash that produced a series of exceptionally harsh juvenile laws and policies. Juveniles of color bore the brunt of these developments. The juvenile court is once again at a constitutional crossroads. Catalyzed by a series of recent Supreme Court decisions recognizing that children are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of punishment, legislatures and courts are engaged in reform. Gault's racial legacy deserves attention. While buttressing Gault's procedural protections remains important, even the best-trained and best-funded defense lawyers cannot prevent the primary causes of racial injustice in the juvenile court: the over-criminalization, over-policing, over-punishment, and long-standing demonizing of youth of color and the pervasiveness of implicit racial biases among those who determine their fates. These substantive inequities require substantive policy reforms. This may be one of Gault's most significant lessons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
