When the Supreme Court rendered its 1967 In re Gault decision, the Sixth Amendment’s jury trial guarantee had not yet been applied to the states by incorporation. After the Court incorporated that right for adults in Duncan v. Louisiana[case]Duncan v. Louisiana[Duncan v. Louisiana] (1968), the question arose of whether this guarantee should also be applied to juveniles. In McKeiver, which involved several cases regarding juvenile proceedings in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, the Court answered in the negative, deciding that Gault did not require strict conformity to the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury but that “fundamental fairness” was all that was required. Despite some scholarly and legal criticism, the ruling in McKeiver remains valid law.Juvenile justice;McKeiver v. Pennsylvania[MacKeiver v. Pennsylvania]

Due process, procedural

Fourteenth Amendment

Gault, In re

Gideon v. Wainwright

Juvenile justice

Miranda v. Arizona

Winship, In re