270
Opinion of the Court
854 (1959). Anders thereafter sought a writ of habeas corpus from the State Court of Appeal, which denied relief, explaining that it had again reviewed the record and had found the appeal to be " 'without merit.' " Anders, 386 U. S., at 740 (quoting unreported memorandum opinion).
We held that "California's action does not comport with fair procedure and lacks that equality that is required by the Fourteenth Amendment." Id., at 741. We placed the case within a line of precedent beginning with Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U. S. 12 (1956), and continuing with Douglas, supra, that imposed constitutional constraints on States when they choose to create appellate review.5 In finding the California procedure to have breached these constraints, we compared it to other procedures we had found invalid and to statutory requirements in the federal courts governing appeals by indigents with appointed counsel. Anders, supra, at 741-743. We relied in particular on Ellis v. United States, 356 U. S. 674 (1958) (per curiam), a case involving federal statutory requirements, and quoted the following passage from it:
" 'If counsel is convinced, after conscientious investigation, that the appeal is frivolous, of course, he may ask to withdraw on that account. If the court is satisfied that counsel has diligently investigated the possible grounds of appeal, and agrees with counsel's evaluation of the case, then leave to withdraw may be allowed and leave to appeal may be denied.' " Anders, supra, at 741-742 (quoting Ellis, supra, at 675).
In Anders, neither counsel, the state appellate court on direct appeal, nor the state habeas courts had made any finding of frivolity.6 We concluded that a finding that the appeal
5 The Constitution does not, however, require States to create appellate review in the first place. See, e. g., Ross v. Moffitt, 417 U. S. 600, 606 (1974) (citing McKane v. Durston, 153 U. S. 684, 687 (1894)).
6 The same was true in Ellis itself. See Ellis v. United States, 249 F. 2d 478, 480-481 (CADC 1957) (Washington, J., dissenting) ("Counsel . . . concluded that the rulings of the District Court were not 'so clearly erro-
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