Law Commons^™

Coercive Appointments Of Counsel In Civil Cases In Forma Pauperis: An Easy Case Makes Hard Law, William B. Fisch

Faculty Publications

The power to appoint an unwilling attorney, whether judicial or statutory in origin, has been challenged in principle on three grounds, founded in the Federal Constitution and its state counterparts: (i) that to require the lawyer to serve constitutes involuntary servitude, within the meaning of the thirteenth amendment;' (ii) that it constitutes an unlawful taking of property, or at the very least constitutes a taking for a public use which requires just compensation, under the fifth amendment;8 and (iii) that to subject attorneys as a class to such an obligation constitutes discrimination which would deny them equal protection of the …