Chattanooga Times Free Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court bolstered the rights of juveniles for a second year in a row, deciding by a 5-4 vote that police officers who remove a student from a class to question him about a crime must warn him of his right to remain silent.
The decision Thursday did not set a strict rule for all cases involving police questioning of minors, but the justices said young people deserve extra protection.
“It is beyond dispute that children will often feel bound to submit to police questioning when an adult in the same circumstance would feel free to leave,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “Seeing no reason for police officers or courts to blind themselves to that commonsense reality, we hold that a child’s age properly informs the Miranda custody analysis.”
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