In Smith v. Hooey, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a prisoner who had been denied his right to a speedy trial. The petitioner, Smith, was serving time in federal prison when he requested that Texas authorities promptly try him on pending state charges. His requests were repeatedly ignored for six years under the justification that it would be inconvenient and expensive for the state to bring him back from federal custody for trial proceedings. However, the court held that this delay violated Smith's Sixth Amendment rights which guarantee all defendants a swift judicial process regardless of their custodial status or location at the time of prosecution initiation.

The dissenting opinion in the case of Smith v. Hooey was not provided, as all justices concurred with the majority opinion that a defendant has a right to a speedy trial and that this right is applicable to states through the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The court held that it was unconstitutional for Texas authorities to delay Smith's trial until his release from federal prison, where he was serving time on unrelated charges.