 J.D.B. v. North Carolina was a 2011 case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that age is relevant when determining police custody for Miranda purposes . Sotomayor was assigned to write the majority opinion in the case . 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 . Sotomayor 's opinion for the Court held that a child 's age properly informs the Miranda custody analysis . Her opinion underscored the dangers of not applying age to the custody analysis , writing : " to hold ... that a child 's age is never relevant to whether a suspect has been taken into custody — and thus to ignore the very real differences between children and adults — would be to deny children the full scope of the procedural safeguards that Miranda guarantees to adults " . The opinion cited Stansbury v. California where the Court held that a child 's age " would have affected how a reasonable person " in the suspect 's position " would perceive his or her freedom to leave " . Yarborough v. Alvarado was also cited , where the Court wrote that a child 's age " generates commonsense conclusions about behavior and perception " . Finally , Sotomayor 's opinion pointed out that the law reflects the idea that a child 's judgment is not the same as an adult 's , in the form of legal disqualifications on children as a class ( e.g. limitations on a child 's ability to marry without parental consent ) . Sotomayor 's opinion was challenged by Associate Justice Samuel Alito who wrote a dissenting opinion for four Justices . 
