All defendants have the right to an attorney and must be provided one by the state if they are unable to afford legal counsel. Decided March 18, 1963 (argued January 15, 1963). Opinion of the Court: Hugo Black → go there Applied: the Sixth Amendment → go there Applied: the Fourteenth Amendment → go there Topic: Right to counsel. Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well. Wiki link