Heller v. Connecticut

Background

A police officer found a man sitting in an improperly parked car at 1:50 a.m., smelled alcohol, and took him to a nearby police station. The man asked to call a lawyer but was refused. He would not answer questions or submit to routine field tests without counsel. He was placed in a cell, awakened at 7:05 a.m., told of his rights, and then telephoned his attorney ten minutes later. He was tried before a judge, denied a jury trial, convicted of being "found intoxicated," fined $20, and given a suspended 10-day jail sentence; state appeals were unsuccessful.

Reasoning

The central issue was whether denying a jailed person the chance to call a lawyer violated the constitutional right to counsel. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case and so left the lower-court judgment intact. In a dissent, Justice Fortas (joined by Justice Douglas) argued the question is important and recurring: whether offenses that can carry jail time require immediate access to a lawyer and whether police may hold a person incommunicado without allowing a call.

Real world impact

Because the Court refused to review the case, this man’s conviction and sentence remain in effect. The broader national question about an arrestee’s immediate right to telephone a lawyer is left unresolved and may come up in future cases.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Fortas emphasized that a prompt call might have secured medical or chemical testing, summoned a private physician, or notified family; he would have granted review to resolve the issue now.