• The SCOTUS decision that established the requirements for public defenders, Gideon v. Wainwright, was part of the Warren Court. That era in Supreme Court history brought US law forward by leaps and bounds in ways that people now don’t fully appreciate. The government had a lot more leeway to abuse citizens before then. Unfortunately, the current conservative court is largely a reaction to those “activist judges” and seeks to reverse the progress of that era. Good if you’re a business owner, Christian, non-LGBTQ+, or white. Bad otherwise.