Clarence Earl Gideon, charged with felony breaking-and-entering in Florida, requested a court-appointed lawyer. The judge refused; Gideon defended himself, was convicted, and hand-wrote a petition to the Supreme Court from prison. The unanimous Court, in Justice Black's opinion, held that the Sixth Amendment right to counsel — long guaranteed in federal court — is a 'fundamental right, essential to a fair trial' and applies to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. 'Lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.' Gideon required states to build public defender systems from scratch and remains the constitutional bedrock of the right to counsel.