Felix Frankfurter

“ And the consequences of such a course of action here, for the observance and preservation of constitutional rights, more especially of the indigent and ignorant who are unable to employ counsel from their own resources and do not know their rights, must be, not merely a denial of the basic right of counsel, but also a denial of the equal protection of the laws in sweeping application. Poverty or wealth will make all the difference in securing the substance or only the shadow of constitutional protections. ”

“ The Court seems to fear that protecting these defendants' right to counsel to the full extent defined in the Bill of Rights would furnish 'opportunities hitherto uncontemplated for opening wide the prison doors of the land,' because presumably, there are many people like Betts, Foster and Payne behind those doors after trials without having had the benefit of counsel. I do not believe that such a reason is even relevant to a determination that we should decline to enforce the Bill of Rights. ”

“ The only tenable presumption is that the court refrained deliberately, in accordance with the state law, from taking action in any of these respects.
Moreover, when men appear in court for trial or plea, obviously without counsel or so far as appears the means of securing such aid, under serious charges such as were made here involving penalties of the character imposed, it is altogether inconsistent with their federal constitutional right for the court to shut its eyes to their apparently helpless condition without so much as an inquiry concerning its cause. ”