[1] The Court reasoned that, "The right to assistance of counsel and the correlative right to dispense with a lawyer's help are not legal formalisms... To deny an accused a choice of procedure in circumstances in which he, though a layman, is as capable as any lawyer of making an intelligent choice, is to impair the worth of great Constitutional safeguards by treating them as empty verbalisms...to deny him in the exercise of his free choice the right to dispense with some of these safeguards .

"[2] The defendant Anthony Faretta was accused of grand theft in Los Angeles County, California.

Several weeks later, but still before the trial, the judge initiated a hearing to inquire into Faretta's ability to defend himself.

After questioning him on numerous topics, including hearsay and juries, the judge ruled that his answers were inadequate and he had not made an intelligent decision to waive counsel.

Justice Blackmun wrote a dissent arguing that the Sixth Amendment does not support the right to self-representation and raised the additional procedural problems that would inevitably arise by the decision, arguing that such procedural problems would far outweigh whatever tactical advantage the defendant may feel he has gained by electing to represent himself.