Argument Preview: Rothgery v. Gillespie County
Excerpted below is Stanford student Patrick Nemeroff’s preview of Monday’s argument in Rothgery v. Gillespie County. Find the full text here, at SCOTUSwiki.
In Rothgery v. Gillespie County, No. 07-0440, the Court will consider when exactly adversarial proceedings have been initiated against an individual for purposes of triggering his Sixth Amendment right to appointed counsel. The petitioner, Walter Rothgery, maintains that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated when he was arrested and brought before a magistrate who informed him of the accusation against him, found probable cause, and sent him to jail pending the posting of bail or the disposition of charges, but when respondent Gillespie County failed to appoint counsel for him until after he was indicted.
