Cite as: 518 U. S. 343 (1996)
Thomas, J., concurring
or habeas corpus petitions heard. According to the Bounds Court, these decisions "struck down restrictions and required remedial measures to insure that inmate access to the courts is adequate, effective, and meaningful." 430 U. S., at 822. This is inaccurate. Notwithstanding the suggestion in Bounds, our transcript and fee cases did not establish a freestanding right of access to the courts, meaningful or otherwise.
In Griffin, for instance, we invalidated an Illinois rule that charged criminal defendants a fee for a trial transcript necessary to secure full direct appellate review of a criminal conviction. See 351 U. S., at 13-14; id., at 22 (Frankfurter, J., concurring in judgment). See also Ross v. Moffitt, supra, at 605-606. Though we held the fee to be unconstitutional, our decision did not turn on the effectiveness or adequacy of the access afforded to criminal defendants generally. We were quite explicit in reaffirming the century-old principle that "a State is not required by the Federal Constitution to provide appellate courts or a right to appellate review at all." Griffin, supra, at 18 (emphasis added) (citing McKane v. Durston, 153 U. S. 684, 687-688 (1894)). Indeed, the Court in Griffin was unanimous on this point. See 351 U. S., at 21 (Frankfurter, J., concurring in judgment) ("[I]t is now settled that due process of law does not require a State to afford review of criminal judgments"); id., at 27 (Burton, J., dissenting) ("Illinois, as the majority admit, could thus deny an appeal altogether in a criminal case without denying due process of law"); id., at 36 (Harlan, J., dissenting) ("The majority of the Court concedes that the Fourteenth Amendment does not require the States to provide for any kind of appellate review").1 In light of the Griffin Court's unanimous
1 We reaffirmed this principle almost two decades later, and just three years before Bounds v. Smith, 430 U. S. 817 (1977), in Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U. S. 600 (1974), where we observed that Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12 (1956), and "[s]ucceeding cases invalidated . . . financial barriers to the appellate process, at the same time reaffirming the traditional principle
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