Gideon's Trumpet

9 Pages 2248 Words

ocess clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that “No state shall…deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” had been violated when the trial court had denied Gideon’s request for an attorney. In Gideon’s petition to the Court, he states, “When at the time of the petitioners trial he ask the lower court for the aid of counsel, the court refused the aid. Petitioner told the court that this Court made decision to the effect that all citizens tried for a felony crime should have aid of counsel. The lower court ignored this plea” (8). Gideon never mentioned the case of Betts v. Brady. Without Betts Gideon really would have had no claim before the Court. Betts was precedent and it stood to limit the right of counsel except in special circumstances. Although Gideon did not realize it, he was asking for one the great occasions in which the Court reverses itself. As Lewis states, “He was asking the Supreme Court to change its mind” (11).
Chapter 2
In Chapter 2, Lewis describes the Court as an institution. Particularly, he focuses on the rules, both stated and unstated, that the Court follows in determining which cases it will hear and its holding in those cases. Gideon’s question hinged on the issue of whether the Constitution and, in particular, the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause provided for the right to counsel in all felony cases.
Viewed as a federal claim, the case of Gideon v. Cochran presents the conflict between the federal government and states. In the case of a conflict between the federal and state levels of government, states are to yield to the federal government. The conflict between the states and the federal government was addressed in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee, in which the Court held that contrary to Virginia State court rulings the Jay Treaty of 1794 was law, not a Virginia statute that ran contradictory to it. In considering the conflict...