Court Opinion

ID: 9460328
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:47:23.146299+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:34.537533
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(concurring specially):
I agree that our previous decision in this case should be vacated, and that the case should be remanded to the district court. At the same time, I wish to make clear my belief that Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 1973, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S.Ct. 1756, 36 L.Ed.2d 656, does not decide the equal protection issue discussed in our initial opinion.
The Supreme Court in Gagnon determined that a case by case analysis was necessary to determine whether an indigent probationer or parolee had a due process right to appointed counsel at revocation hearings. The Supreme Court subsequently vacated this Court’s judgment in Cottle v. Wainwright, 5 Cir. 1973, 477 F.2d 269, and remanded that *123case for further consideration in light of Gagnon. Wainwright v. Cottle, 1973, 414 U.S. 895, 896, 94 S.Ct. 221, 38 L.Ed.2d 138. The instant case on the equal protection issue is similar to Cottle, and our original opinion relied upon the holding in that case.
In dissenting from the majority’s vacation and remand in Cottle, Justice Douglas, joined by Justice Blackmun, argued that Gagnon was “inapposite” to the issue raised in Cottle. Justice Douglas described the issue in Cottle as “whether the court below was correct in holding that the Equal Protection Clause requires the right to appointed counsel at parole revocation hearings in cases where, unlike Gagnon v. Scarpelli, supra, a solvent parolee has a statutory right to the presence of retained counsel.” I agree that Gagnon does not decide the equal protection issue raised in Cottle and in this case.
The fact that Justices Douglas and Blackmun were in dissent does not necessarily mean that the majority disagreed with their analysis. The majority vacated and remanded this Court’s judgment, but wrote no opinion. Possibly the majority acted upon the idea that application of Gagnon might make it unnecessary to reach the constitutional issue raised in Cottle. Or perhaps the majority felt that the question raised in Cottle deserved further study in light of Gagnon.
One difference between Cottle and this case deserves mention. In Cottle, the petitioner raised his equal protection claim under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lane is a federal probationer and therefore raised his equal protection claim under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment. There remains a substantial question as to whether equal protection violative of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment is coextensive with equal protection specifically protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The intimation to that effect in Bolling v. Sharpe, 1954, 347 U.S. 497, 499, 74 S.Ct. 693, 98 L.Ed. 884, finds support not only in the earlier decided Supreme Court eases1 hut also in the later decisions.2
That constitutional question should not be reached unless the facts of the case so require. If made necessary by the facts developed upon remand, the district court should decide whether the federal government, having provided for representation by retained counsel, may constitutionally deny the assistance of counsel to those unable to pay attorneys’ fees.
I therefore concur specially.

. See, e. g., Sunshine Coal Co. v. Adkins, 1940, 310 U.S. 381, 401, 60 S.Ct. 907, 84 L.Ed. 1263; Helvering v. Lerner Stores Co., 1941, 314 U.S. 463, 468, 62 S.Ct. 341, 86 L.Ed. 343; Detroit Bank v. United States, 1943, 317 U.S. 329, 337, 338, 63 S.Ct. 297, 87 L.Ed. 304.

. Schneider v. Rusk, 1964, 377 U.S. 163, 168, 84 S.Ct. 1187, 12 L.Ed.2d 218; Shapiro v. Thompson, 1969, 394 U.S. 618, 642, 89 S.Ct. 1322, 22 L.Ed.2d 600; Hurtado v. United States, 1973, 410 U.S. 578, 590, 93 S.Ct. 1157, 35 L.Ed.2d 508 (see also dissenting opinion of Justice Douglas at p. 600); Frontiero v. Richardson, 1973, 411 U.S. 677, 680, 93 S.Ct. 1764, 36 L.Ed.2d 583; United States v. Kras, 1973, 409 U.S. 434, 458, 93 S.Ct. 631, 34 L.Ed.2d 626; Wainwright v. Cottle, supra, 414 U.S. at 896.