3-2-1 Post: Rights of the Accused

I learned several things from both the article and the video. I was shocked that Hugo Black, a Senator from Alabama was one of the staunchest supporters of extending the Bill of Rights to the States. This would curb state powers, something most southerners were against. I also had no idea that the Hugo Black invented the concept of the Public Defender, a truly enormous accomplishment. I was horrified to learn that "a lawyer... often spends less than six minutes per case at hearings where clients plead guilty and are sentenced." One connection I made was with the concept of the Public Defender being an unfunded mandate, similar to major federal legislation, such as the Clean Air Act. The other connection I made was to how Supreme Court has the power to change a nation, just as they also did with Brown vs. The Board of Education. My question is why don't more people know about Hugo Black? The answer is because he was a white southern male with past ties to the KKK and it would not be politically correct to honor him. 


http://sunnylandsclassroom.org/Asset.aspx?id=12
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/how-americans-lost-the-right-to-counsel-50-years-after-gideon/273433/?single_page=true