The Children Being Denied Due Process
“Juvenile courts have historically functioned under the ethos of parens patriae, the assumption that courts acts in the best interest of those who cannot help themselves. As a result, the juvenile-court system operates according to a parental rather than adversarial process, an informal, ad hoc judicial process governed by a supposedly benevolent and paternal juvenile court. In Justice Fortas’s opinion, this improvisational, parens patriae practice, no matter how well-intentioned, is the enemy of justice and individual rights. ‘[U]nbridled discretion, however benevolently motivated, is frequently a poor substitute for principle and procedure,’ and ‘departures from established principles of due process have frequently resulted not in enlightened procedure, but in arbitrariness,’ Fortas wrote.”