Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/10pdf/10-10.pdf
Page Number: 26

6 

TURNER v. ROGERS 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

tion  revocation);  Middendorf  v.  Henry,  425  U. S.  25,  48 
(1976)  (summary  court-martial);  Parham  v.  J. R.,  442 
U. S.  584,  599–600,  606–607,  610,  n.  18  (1979)  (commit-
ment  of  minor  to  mental  hospital);  Vitek  v.  Jones,  445 
U. S.  480,  497–500  (1980)  (Powell,  J.,  controlling  opinion
concurring  in  part)  (transfer  of  prisoner  to  mental  hospi-
tal).  Indeed, the only circumstance in which the Court has 
found  that  due  process  categorically  requires  appointed
counsel  is  juvenile  delinquency  proceedings,  which  the
Court  has  described  as  “functionally  akin  to  a  criminal 
trial.”  Scarpelli,  supra,  at  789,  n.  12  (discussing  In re 
Gault, supra); see ante, at 9. 

Despite  language  in  its  opinions  that  suggests  it  could 
find  otherwise,  the  Court’s  consistent  judgment  has  been
that  fundamental  fairness  does  not  categorically  require
appointed  counsel  in  any  context  outside  of  criminal 
proceedings.  The  majority  is  correct,  therefore,  that  the
Court’s  precedent  does  not  require  appointed  counsel  in 
the absence of a deprivation of liberty.  Id., at 9–10.  But a 
more  complete  description  of  this  Court’s  cases  is  that 
even  when  liberty  is  at  stake,  the  Court  has  required 
appointed  counsel  in  a  category  of  cases  only  where  it
would  have  found  the  Sixth  Amendment  required  it—in
criminal prosecutions. 

II 
The  majority  agrees  that  the  Constitution  does  not
entitle Turner to appointed counsel.  But at the invitation 
of the Federal Government as amicus curiae, the majority
holds that his contempt hearing violated the Due Process
Clause  for  an  entirely  different  reason,  which  the  parties 

—————— 

criminal  contemners  are  entitled  to  “the  protections  that  the  Consti-
tution  requires  of  such  criminal  proceedings,”  including  the  right  to 
counsel.    Mine  Workers  v.  Bagwell,  512  U. S.  821,  826  (1994)  (citing 
Cooke  v.  United  States,  267  U. S.  517,  537  (1925);  internal  quotation 
marks omitted).