Tag Archives: sixth amendment

The 43-day government shutdown exposed a constitutional crisis: Prosecutors kept working while defense attorneys went unpaid, halting a death penalty case.

In its 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, indigent defendants facing serious criminal charges have a fundamental right to counsel, even if they are unable to pay. But the decision didn’t speak to where the funds for …