Recent Supreme Court Ruling Regarding Sixth Amendment Right to Counsel

The United States Supreme Court recently issued an opinion regarding the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. In the decision of Luis v. Unites States , 578 U.S. ____ (2016), case no. 14-419, March 30, 2016, the Court found that the government cannot freeze "untainted" assets as they are not related to any alleged wrongdoing or criminal act.

Justice Stephen Breyer rendered the opinion of a four-justice plurality, which included Chief Justice Roberts, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, overturning the Eleventh Circuit ruling. Justice Clarence Thomas concurred with the decision for different reasons. Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy and Elena Kagan dissented from the opinion.

This case involved a federal statute allowing court-ordered pretrial freezing of assets, belonging to one accused of violating healthcare or banking laws. The issue before the Court was whether or not a defendant has a Sixth Amendment right to use assets, not directly related to the charged crimes, in order to retain counsel of choice. The Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel prohibited the lower court order allowing freezing of the assets.

Justice Thomas joined with the plurality finding that the pre-trial freezing of untainted assets violates Sixth Amendment right to counsel based upon the text of the Sixth Amendment and common-law traditions.

Justice Kennedy wrote a dissenting opinion in which Justice Alito joined, finding that the Court’s plurality ruling "abandons the principles" established in previous opinions of Caplin & Drysdale v. United States and United States v. Monsanto. The dissent found that the decision will create a “perverse incentive” for defendants to quickly spend tainted assets in favor of using their own money to retain counsel.

The Luis decision can be found here: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-419_nmip.pdf

For more information about this or any other area of criminal or traffic law, please contact James R. Doerr, of Lavelle Law, at (847) 705-7555 or via email at jdoerr@lavellelaw.com.