Last week, the Supreme Court decided that a state may require a criminal defendant who is mentally ill to have a lawyer, rather than allow the person to act as his or her own defense counsel, even when the person is competent enough to stand trial. In writing the majority opinion in the 7-2 decision, Justice Breyer cited Adjudicative Competence: The MacArthur Studies (2002), by the Foundation’s Research Network on Mental Health and the Law. Justice Breyer said that conducting a defense at trial requires a higher degree of competence than being able to work with counsel. In overturning the Indiana Supreme Court decision, Indiana v. Edwards, Justice Breyer wrote, "A right of self-representation at trial will not affirm the dignity of a defendant who lacks the mental capacity to conduct his defense without the assistance of counsel. To the contrary, given the defendant’s uncertain mental state, that spectacle that could well result from his self-representation at trial is at least as likely to prove humiliating as ennobling."