page_title: J. D. B. v. North Carolina
section_title: Dissent
hierarchical_section_title: J. D. B. v. North Carolina / Opinion of the court / Dissent
caption_attribution_description: Official 2007 portrait of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito
context_page_description: J. D. B. v. North Carolina, 564 U.S. 261, was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that age is relevant when determining police custody for Miranda purposes. J. D. B. was a 13-year-old student enrolled in special education classes whom police had suspected of committing two robberies. A police investigator visited J. D. B. at school, where he was interrogated by the investigator, a uniformed police officer, and school officials. J. D. B. subsequently confessed to his crimes and was convicted. J. D. B. was not given a Miranda warning during the interrogation, nor an opportunity to contact his legal guardian.
  During the trial, attempts to suppress the statements given by J. D. B. because he was not given a Miranda warning were denied on the grounds that J. D. B. was not in police custody. The case was appealed and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case J. D. B. v. North Carolina.
  After examining the lower court's reasoning, the Supreme Court found that J. D. B.'s age should have been considered when determining whether he was in police custody.
context_section_description: Associate Justice Samuel Alito wrote a dissenting opinion for four Justices. The primary objection of the dissent was that the ruling of the majority was inconsistent with one of the main justifications for the Miranda rule: the need for a clear rule that is easily applied in all cases. Alito argued the decision shifted custody determination from a simple test to an inquiry that must account for individualized characteristics. Alito emphasized that age is not the only characteristic that may affect a subject under interrogation and that in future cases the court will be tasked with adding additional characteristics to custody determination or by "arbitrarily distinguishing a suspect's age from other personal characteristics".
caption: Justice Alito authored the opinion for the dissent.
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