Cite as: 509 U. S. 389 (1993)
Opinion of Kennedy, J.
ant must make during the course of those proceedings. See Commonwealth v. Woelfel, 88 S. W. 1061, 1062 (Ky. 1905); Jordan v. State, 135 S. W. 327, 328-329 (Tenn. 1911); State v. Seminary, 115 So. 370, 371-372 (La. 1927); State ex rel. Townsend v. Bushong, 146 Ohio St. 271, 272, 65 N. E. 2d 407, 408 (1946) (per curiam); Moss v. Hunter, 167 F. 2d 683, 684-685 (CA10 1948). Commentators have agreed that the common-law standard of competency to stand trial, which parallels the Dusky standard, has been applied throughout criminal proceedings, not just to the formal trial. See H. Weihofen, Mental Disorder as a Criminal Defense 428- 429, 431 (1954) ("It has long been the rule of the common law that a person cannot be required to plead to an indictment or be tried for a crime while he is so mentally disordered as to be incapable of making a rational defense"); S. Brakel, J. Parry, and A. Weiner, The Mentally Disabled and the Law 695-696 (3d ed. 1985) ("It has traditionally been presumed that competency to stand trial means competency to participate in all phases of the trial process, including such pretrial activities as deciding how to plead, participating in plea bargaining, and deciding whether to assert or waive the right to counsel").
That the common law did not adopt heightened competency standards is readily understood when one considers the difficulties that would be associated with more than one standard. The standard applicable at a given point in a trial could be difficult to ascertain. For instance, if a defendant decides to change his plea to guilty after a trial has commenced, one court might apply the competency standard for undergoing trial while another court might use the standard for pleading guilty. In addition, the subtle nuances among different standards are likely to be difficult to differentiate, as evidenced by the lack of any clear distinction between a "rational understanding" and a "reasoned choice" in this case. See ante, at 398.
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