How is it possible that a poor, uneducated man was able to change the law of the United States? As Clarence Earl Gideon was put on trial for breaking and entering, he remained adamant and relentless in his right to due process; more importantly, his right to a lawyer. After being forced to represent himself, Gideon pled not guilty, fought his way through the trial, and was still convicted. Gideon’s resilience would not let this be the end of his battle. He journeyed his way to the Supreme Court and stood up for what he felt was right. But Gideon’s Trumpet didn’t only give an insight to Gideon’s triumph. Anthony Lewis, the author, gave an insight to all the complexities of the Supreme Court from the justices’ law clerks to how the justices decide
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Gideon’s Trumpet gives a much deeper look into the Supreme Court and how it operates. In the beginning of the book Lewis goes in depth about the process of filing a petition such as Gideon’s. For example, on page 4 Lewis writes about the Supreme Court’s rules such as Rule 53 which “allows an impoverished person to file just one copy of a petition, instead of the forty ordinarily required…” (4). Throughout the book Lewis also writes about other Supreme Court trials-some with relevance to Gideon’s case and some not-, the history of the Supreme Court as well as how it has changed throughout the years. Lewis does not strictly write about Gideon’s case and how it affected the Supreme Court; he writes about how everything that happens and has happened involving the Supreme Court has molded and shaped it into the system it is …show more content…
I did not know that only those who qualified under the “special circumstances” were, at one point, the only people allowed the right to a court appointed attorney. Lewis explained Betts v. Brady in the first chapter, saying, “For a majority of six to three, Justice Owen J. Roberts said the Fourteenth Amendment provided no universal assurance of a lawyer’s help in a state criminal trial.” I have always known of the Fourteenth Amendment that Gideon fought
Gideon’s Trumpet gives a much deeper look into the Supreme Court and how it operates. In the beginning of the book Lewis goes in depth about the process of filing a petition such as Gideon’s. For example, on page 4 Lewis writes about the Supreme Court’s rules such as Rule 53 which “allows an impoverished person to file just one copy of a petition, instead of the forty ordinarily required…” (4). Throughout the book Lewis also writes about other Supreme Court trials-some with relevance to Gideon’s case and some not-, the history of the Supreme Court as well as how it has changed throughout the years. Lewis does not strictly write about Gideon’s case and how it affected the Supreme Court; he writes about how everything that happens and has happened involving the Supreme Court has molded and shaped it into the system it is …show more content…
I did not know that only those who qualified under the “special circumstances” were, at one point, the only people allowed the right to a court appointed attorney. Lewis explained Betts v. Brady in the first chapter, saying, “For a majority of six to three, Justice Owen J. Roberts said the Fourteenth Amendment provided no universal assurance of a lawyer’s help in a state criminal trial.” I have always known of the Fourteenth Amendment that Gideon fought