David Levell W. v. California

Petitioner, a 13-year-old minor, was taken from his home to a police station for questioning by police officers who had neither an arrest warrant nor probable cause for his arrest. The court below held that there was no violation of petitioner’s constitutional rights because the officers acted on instructions from his mother. Because I believe the case presents an important question concerning a parent’s authority to waive her minor child’s right under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to be free from “unreasonable seizures,” I dissent from denial of the petition for a writ of certiorari.

I

O…