I was kind of stoked today to find a first edition paper back copy of Gideon's Trumpet (I lost a newer edition during my transition from college to...non-college) by Anthony Lewis from one of those street book vendors. He wanted two bucks, but I talked him down to one. High five people, can I get a high five? This book recounts how Clarence Earl Gideon a fifty-one-year-old white inmate "...who had been in and out of prison much of his life" with a "...wrinkled, prematurely aged face, a voice and hands that trembled, a frail body, white hair," and despite his 8th grade level education, challenged the system and brought a landmark case before the Supreme Court. The Court in a slam dunk decision led by Justice Hugo Black ultimately ruled that his right to counsel and his due process as provided by the Sixth and Fourteenth amendments respectively was violated when he was denied access to an attorney by the state of Florida (Why does Florida always seem to rob poor people of their rights?).
In our current political climate in all three branches of government I can't help but wonder how this case would be construed by politicians, the White House, and how the SCOTUS would decide Gideon's case.
Anyway, if you want a break from whatever you are reading then check out Gideon's Trumpet and edumacate yourself.