thomsonreuters.com: The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the application of its two year-old ruling on immigrants have a constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel and must be told about possible deportation as a result of a guilty plea:

The justices said they would consider whether its March 31, 2010, ruling would apply retroactively to previous convictions or would only to convictions after that date. Defense lawyers said in their Supreme Court appeal that the issue has profound practical significance.

In its original ruling, the Supreme Court decided by a 7-2 vote that an immigrant’s constitutional right to effective counsel was violated when his attorney mistakenly told him he could plead guilty to drug charges without being deported.