ABSTRACT
What You Need to Know
■ The U.S. Supreme Court clarified the rights of juvenile defendants in several landmark cases.
■ For example, the Gault decision ruled that juveniles have the privilege against self-incrimination and the right to the assistance of counsel in cases with the possibility of a decision to put the juvenile in confinement in a locked facility.
■ In McKeiver v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles do not have the right to trial by jury.
■ Reasonable corporal punishment is permissible in schools.
■ Students do have limited free speech rights at school, but school officials can exercise broad editorial control over student publications.
■ School officials can search students when they have reasonable suspicion to do so.
■ Carefully drawn curfew laws have been upheld as constitutional. Excessively vague laws have not been upheld.
■ Raising the legal drinking age has had positive effects on both traffic fatalities and protecting youths from long-term negative outcomes.
