New Thinking, from the Center for Justice Innovation
Gideon at 60: Uncivil Justice
A profile of the fight to secure lawyers for people facing eviction and the radical impact that is having in Housing Court. With its 1963 Gideon decision, the Supreme Court guaranteed a lawyer to any poor person facing prison time. For criminal cases, the decision was both sweeping and critically incomplete. On the civil side, the campaign for a right-to-counsel is taking a different approach—it’s slow and piecemeal, but it’s also working.
This is the second episode in our series on the legacy of the Gideon decision. Hear the first episode here.