Sixth.com

One of the pillars of the American Justice system is the right to legal representation, as enshrined in the Bill of Rights. As the modern legal system has matured, this basic right to counsel has been extended to lower level (state, local, district) as well as Federal courts, after several fundamental challenges.

As Civil Rights and Liberties became a growing part of American jurisprudence in the early 20th century, a 1932 Powell v. Alabama case extended the rights to a publicly-appointed attorney for those “unable to employ counsel”, which was extended to the lower courts in the 1942 Betts v. Brady case “under special circumstances”. Later rulings, such as the 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright case made the right more universal, providing representation to all accused felons, while the 1979 Scott versus Illinois case granted the right to all accused.

Among the most prominent cases related to the right to counsel, the Court found in Brewer versus Williams that both the 6th and 14th Amendments support the right to legal representation. The ruling emerged from the question as to whether a defendant can defer to a counsel after legal proceedings have commenced. According to the 1977 ruling, this right begins as soon as a defendant is arraigned and “confined” by law enforcement. The related case of Miranda Rights, which requires notification of a legal rights for the accused, also falls within the bounds of the Amendment.

Under the ruling, the Court determined that the accused has the right to counsel as soon as criminal proceedings have begun, a ruling that has held up on appeal in several State Supreme courts, such as the Louisiana v. Hattaway case in 1993 as well as the New Jersey Pasqua v. Council case in 2006.

Leading Claremont Professor Leonard Levy published Origins of the Bill of Rights as part of the Yale University legal book series. A traditional history, which focuses on the Anglo-Saxon tradition in Western law, Levy traces the philosophical roots of our modern constitution to concepts of Enlightenment philosophy. While the book does a solid job of tracing early Constitutional history, it pays less attention to the modern evolution of legal concepts.

As Levy’s 36th book on the Constitution, however, Origins is a comprehensive take on the topic, spanning just 320 pages and covering a wide range of 18th century legal history. For those looking to understand the basic concepts that went into the creation of the Bill of Rights, Levy’s book is a solid source to start with. One criticism of the book, however, is that Levy tends to focus on the originalist conception of the American Constitution, while not heeding other schools of thought which have contributed to the modern Court. Today’s Supreme Court has a wide range of legal philosophies represented, ranging from Originalists such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to pragmatists such as Justices Kennedy and Breyer; Chief Justice Roberts strikes a balance between the two sides, and will be the key figure on the Court for decades to come.

Accessible to casual observers and scholars alike, the book is somewhat controversial in its approach to the Second Amendment; Levy argues that the founders sought to provide an individual right to bear arms, which is a point of contention today for legal schools (many argue, by contrast, that the Amendment refers to the right of an independent militia to protect against a tyrannical government.) An additional point of contention is his take on the 9th Amendment where Levy argues that “the natural rights philosophy seized the minds of the Framers, as it had the minds of the rebellious patriots of 1776″, which opens an expansive interpretation of natural rights, playing him back on the left, where his 2nd Amendment arguments fell to the right of center. The 6th Amendment, in guaranteeing the accused of a trial by their peers as well as the right to a legal defense, is a core part of establishing the equality before the law that makes the Constitution a fundamentally Enlightenment-based document. Levy does an excellent job of tracing the roots of this tradition.