Doe

John Doe petitioned for rehearing from the March 27,1997, Ninth Circuit reversal of the district court’s order to suppress statements Doe made, while a juvenile, after waiving his Miranda rights but without parental notification. We have taken this case en banc to reconsider two issues. First, whether failure to notify a juvenile’s parent of his arrest is a constitutional due process violation that requires suppression of the juvenile’s statements made in the absence' of parental notification and without the parent’s presence. Second, whether § 5033 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, 18 U.S.C. § 5033 et seq. (“JJA”), applies where a juvenile is questioned by federal agents while he is held in tribal custody pursuant to tribal charges.

We hold that Doe’s Miranda waiver was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. Additionally, we hold that lack of parental notification is not, per se, a due process violation voiding the Miranda waiver. Finally, we vacate the district court’s decision that 18 U.S.C. § 5033 applies on these facts and remand for further factual determination as to the relationship between the federal and tribal police.

I.

Facts and Proceedings…

joined by FLETCHER, PREGERSON, REINHARDT, and TASHIMA, Circuit Judges, dissenting:

In a deft move that would make Joseph Heller proud, 1 the majority tells us that a juvenile suspect, arrested near the scene of a violent murder by a Navajo Tribal Officer and held in custody for questioning by federal agents, merits the protection of neither the laws of the Navajo Nation nor the United States, both of which require parental notification prior to questioning. Tribal law matters not, the majority tells us, because the juvenile was prosecuted in federal, not tribal, court and no violation of federal law occurred because he was in tribal, not federal custody. To avoid this conundrum, the juvenile must engage in the sisyphean task of proving that he was put in this situation as a result of a conspiracy specifically designed and carried out to avoid the requirements of federal law. The result is all the more problematic as it is the government’s burden to prove that a statement has been made as the result of a knowing, intelligent, and voluntary waiver of one’s rights — a burden the district court has already found the government failed to meet on the facts of this case.

■ District…