{"id":2307,"date":"2019-04-18T16:03:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T20:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.law.temple.edu\/aer\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2021-12-16T14:57:21","modified_gmt":"2021-12-16T14:57:21","slug":"there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since 1984, it has been clear that the Sixth Amendment right to \u201cthe assistance of counsel for his defense\u201d means the right to effective<\/em> counsel. This is what is called, in criminal law practice, the Strickland<\/em> rule. As more than one court has put it, \u201c[r]epresentation by counsel<\/strong> means more than just having a warm<\/strong> body<\/strong> with ‘J.D.’ credentials sitting next to you during the proceedings.” In re M.D.(S).<\/span><\/em>, 168 Wis. 2d 995, 1003, 485 N.W.2d 52, 54 (1992) (footnote omitted). Yet, shockingly, that is not<\/em> what the Constitution demands, according to two of the nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In Garza v. Idaho, 2019 U.S. LEXIS 1596, __ S.Ct. __, 2019 WL 938523 (decided February 27, 2019), the Court had to address whether counsel was ineffective for failing to file a notice of appeal after a defendant pleaded guilty and waived his right to appeal as part of the plea bargain. The majority said \u201cyes,\u201d because there is always something to appeal and lawyers must at least protect the right to seek review.<\/p>\n

Justices Thomas, Alito and Kavanaugh dissented, averring that even under the\u00a0Strickland<\/em> ineffectiveness standard there was no failing by counsel after the clear waiver of appellate rights. But Justice Thomas, joined here only by Justice Kavanaugh, went further. In the context of urging the majority to be careful when extending the right to effective counsel and determining remedies, the two argued that based on the historic origins of the Sixth Amendment, the right to counsel was only the right to have some lawyer be present and not an enforceable right to effective representation. Here is some of what they opined:<\/p>\n

the Court has read the Constitution to require not only a right to counsel at taxpayers\u2019 expense, but a right to effective <\/em>counsel. The result is that convicted criminals can relitigate their trial and appellate claims through collateral challenges couched as ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims. Because little available evidence suggests that this reading is correct as an original matter, the Court should tread carefully before extending our precedents in this area.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

the Sixth Amendment appears to have been understood at the time of ratification as a rejection of the English common-law rule that prohibited counsel, not as a guarantee of government-funded counsel.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

our precedents seek to use the Sixth Amendment right to counsel to achieve an end it is not designed to guarantee. The right to counsel is not an assurance of an error-free trial or even a reliable result. It ensures fairness in a single respect: permitting the accused to\u00a0employ the services of an attorney. The structural protections provided in the Sixth Amendment certainly seek to promote reliable criminal proceedings, but there is no substantive right to a particular level of reliability. In assuming otherwise, our ever-growing right-to-counsel precedents directly conflict with the government\u2019s legitimate interest in the finality of criminal judgments.<\/p>\n

Garza v. Idaho, 2019 U.S. LEXIS 1596, *37-43.<\/p>\n

The Garza<\/em> majority, which included Chief Justice Roberts, made no comment on this view and instead stated as a matter of fact that \u201c[t]he right to counsel includes the right to the effective assistance of counsel.\u201d Garza v. Idaho, 2019 U.S. LEXIS 1596, *8.\u00a0\u00a0 So no change in the law is likely \u2013 but one may feel concerned when a view of the Sixth Amendment as form rather than substance is espoused by two Supreme Court Justices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1984, it has been clear that the Sixth Amendment right to \u201cthe assistance of counsel for his defense\u201d means the right to effective counsel. This is what is called, in criminal law practice, the Strickland rule. As more than one court has put it, \u201c[r]epresentation by counsel means more than just having a warm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6,11],"tags":[],"coauthors":[238],"class_list":["post-2307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advocacy-and-evidence-blog","category-criminal-law","category-trial-advocacy"],"yoast_head":"\nThere is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"504\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"378\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e\"},\"headline\":\"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel?\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Advocacy and Evidence Blog\",\"Criminal Law\",\"Trial Advocacy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\",\"name\":\"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00\",\"description\":\"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\",\"name\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"description\":\"Just another Law Sites site\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png\",\"width\":711,\"height\":220,\"caption\":\"Advocacy and Evidence Resources\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e\",\"name\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g6b68adb939ecac32ef61d8026f0bafe4\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/author\/tug27334\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","description":"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","og_description":"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.","og_url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/","og_site_name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","article_published_time":"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":504,"height":378,"url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/"},"author":{"name":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e"},"headline":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel?","datePublished":"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/"},"wordCount":562,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg","articleSection":["Advocacy and Evidence Blog","Criminal Law","Trial Advocacy"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/","name":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel? - Advocacy and Evidence Resources","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2019-04-18T20:03:23+00:00","dateModified":"2021-12-16T14:57:21+00:00","description":"According to two members of the Supreme Court, the 6th Amendment right to counsel does not guarantee that counsel be effective and offers no remedy for bad lawyering.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/law-dev.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2019\/03\/sleep-and-law-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/2019\/04\/18\/there-is-no-constitutional-right-to-effective-counsel\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"There is no constitutional right to effective counsel?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#website","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/","name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","description":"Just another Law Sites site","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#organization","name":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2021\/07\/AER-LOGO.png","width":711,"height":220,"caption":"Advocacy and Evidence Resources"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/#\/schema\/person\/ebe47f403ad14e2c5faec834f2d8472e","name":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g6b68adb939ecac32ef61d8026f0bafe4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d2a56b84151f5331c5c999af7a12cc505aeed9fec929142bc9dd30b398301e5b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jules M Epstein (hehimhis)"},"url":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/author\/tug27334\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3373,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions\/3373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.temple.edu\/aer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}