ABSTRACT
A book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of In re Gault naturally begins with a description of the case itself. In re Gault reached the United States Supreme Court in the heyday of the Warren Court. In delinquency cases, as in criminal cases, the accused has the right to "confrontation and sworn testimony by witnesses available for cross-examination". Harry Blackmun's blithe confidence in the wisdom and ideal behavior of juvenile court judges is particularly baffling given the facts of the cases that were before the Court in McKeiver v. Pennsylvania. The North Carolina case joined with McKeiver's in the United States Supreme Court, In re Barbara Burrus, was an even starker and graver example of judicial bias and impropriety. Victory in the Supreme Court came only after Jerry Gault spent more than two years at the Arizona Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory known as "desert Devil's Island".
