A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court held that a South Carolina court violated father's constitutional due process rights where he was not given a lawyer or other help before he was jailed for failing to pay child support. In a 5-4 decision, the high court did not go so far as to say that states are required by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution to provide lawyers for poor people in civil cases where a person faces jail time.

Michael Turner, a South Carolina resident, was sentenced to serve up to 12 months in jail for felony non-support, even though he insisted he could not afford his child support payments. Turner had no lawyer. He claimed, and had plenty of support from activists, that all people facing a jail sentence have a constitutional right to an attorney. The Supreme Court held only that a trial court must use "alternative procedures" to ensure "fundamentally fair" hearings.