Halbert v. Michigan

Halbert v. Michigan, 545 U.S. 605 (2005), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a Michigan law, which denied public counsel for defendants appealing a conviction on a plea, violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.[1] In a majority opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court affirmed that "a State is required to appoint counsel for an indigent defendant’s first-tier appeal as of right."[2]

Halbert v. Michigan
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 25, 2005 Decided June 23, 2005
Full case name	Antonio Dwayne Halbert v. Michigan
Citations	545 U.S. 605 (more) 125 S. Ct. 2582; 162 L. Ed. 2d 552
Holding
A Michigan law denying an appeals public defender to those who have plead guilty violated rights to due process and equal protection.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Ginsburg, joined by Stevens, O'Connor, Kennedy, Souter, Breyer
Dissent	Thomas, joined by Scalia, Rehnquist
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV