Cite as: 518 U. S. 343 (1996)
Thomas, J., concurring
cases. 430 U. S., at 823. This observation was wrong, but the equation of these two lines of cases allowed the Bounds Court to preserve the "affirmative obligations" element of the equal access cases, the rationale of which had largely been undermined prior to Bounds, by linking it with Ex parte Hull, which had not been undermined by later cases but which imposed no affirmative obligations. In the process, Bounds forged a right with no basis in precedent or constitutional text: a right to have the State "shoulder affirmative obligations" in the form of law libraries or legal assistance to ensure that prisoners can file meaningful lawsuits. By detaching Griffin's right to equal access and Ex parte Hull's right to physical access from the reasoning on which each of these rights was based, the Bounds Court created a virtually limitless right. And though the right was framed in terms of law libraries and legal assistance in that case, the reasoning is much broader, and this Court should have been prepared under the Bounds rationale to require the appointment of capable state-financed counsel for any inmate who wishes to file a lawsuit. See Bounds, supra, at 841 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) (observing that "the logical destination of the Court's reasoning" in Bounds is "lawyers appointed at the expense of the State"). See also ante, at 354. We have not, however, extended Bounds to its logical conclusion. And though we have not overruled Bounds, we have undoubtedly repudiated its reasoning in our consistent rejection of the proposition that the States must provide counsel beyond the trial and first appeal as of right. See Ross, 417 U. S., at 612; Finley, 481 U. S., at 555; Giarratano, 492 U. S., at 3-4 (plurality opinion).
In the end, I agree that the Constitution affords prisoners what can be termed a right of access to the courts. That right, rooted in the Due Process Clause and the principle articulated in Ex parte Hull, is a right not to be arbitrarily prevented from lodging a claimed violation of a federal right in a federal court. The State, however, is not constitution-
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