## Facts

- Two 12-year-old girls were assaulted near a park in Essex Junction, Vermont; one was killed and the other survived.
- J.S., age 15, and a 16-year-old were alleged to be involved.
- The 16-year-old was prosecuted in criminal court; J.S. was charged in juvenile court as a delinquent child.
- Vermont law (33 V.S.A. § 651) generally required juvenile proceedings to be closed to protect juvenile confidentiality.
- One judge ordered J.S.’s proceedings closed; a newspaper intervened seeking access after learning J.S.’s identity from related adult proceedings.
- A second juvenile judge allowed intervention, ruled the confidentiality provision unconstitutional under the First Amendment, and ordered J.S.’s delinquency proceedings open to the public and press.
- J.S. sought interlocutory review and extraordinary relief to vacate the open-court order and restore closure.

## Issues

1. Whether the First Amendment right of public and press access to criminal trials extends to juvenile delinquency proceedings.
2. Whether Vermont’s statutory scheme presumptively closing juvenile delinquency hearings (33 V.S.A. § 651) is unconstitutional on its face under the First Amendment.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Vermont reversed the juvenile court’s order opening the proceedings.
- The court held that the First Amendment access right recognized for adult criminal trials does not extend in the same manner to juvenile delinquency proceedings.
- The court upheld the constitutionality of Vermont’s statutory confidentiality scheme and restored closure of J.S.’s delinquency hearings, subject to statutory exceptions.

## Legal Principles

- The First Amendment right of access recognized for criminal trials is tied to the historical tradition and structural role of open criminal proceedings and is not automatically applicable to other adjudicative settings.
- Juvenile delinquency proceedings have a distinct tradition of confidentiality, reflecting rehabilitative and protective aims, including shielding a juvenile’s identity and reducing stigma.
- The press has no greater constitutional right of access than the general public in this context.
- A legislature may constitutionally provide for presumptively closed juvenile delinquency proceedings, with limited exceptions, to serve substantial state interests in juvenile rehabilitation and protection.

## Conclusion

The Vermont Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not require juvenile delinquency proceedings to be open to the public and press, and it sustained Vermont’s statutory confidentiality framework as consistent with the First Amendment.


In re J.S., 438 A.2d 1125 (Vt. 1981)