United States of America Ex Rel. Harry E. Carey v. A. T. Rundle, Supt.

OPINION OF THE COURT

ALDISERT, Circuit Judge.

In this case we come to grips with a familiar phrase: “every defendant in a criminal proceeding is entitled to have counsel of his own choice”. This is a lay expression, albeit often articulated by those trained in the law 1 as a paraphrase of the Sixth Amendment: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall * * have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.”

We must decide whether the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments command an absolute right to a particular counsel for a particular trial at a particular time.

The relator was arrested on June 2,…