United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez

Gonzalez-Lopez (defendant) was charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana. After his family initially hired attorney John Fahle, Gonzalez-Lopez separately retained attorney Joseph Low as his sole counsel, but the court twice denied Low's applications for pro hac vice admission without explanation. A different attorney, Dickhaus, represented Gonzalez-Lopez at trial, and the court also denied Dickhaus's request to let Low merely sit at counsel's table and ordered Low to have no contact with Dickhaus during trial. Gonzalez-Lopez was convicted. The appellate court reversed, holding the denial of his chosen counsel violated the Sixth Amendment and required reversal without any harmless-error analysis, and the government appealed to the Supreme Court.