"Gideon's Shadow"

The title of this post is the title of this notable new piece by Justin Marceau, which is available via SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The right to counsel is regarded as a right without peer, even in a field of litigation saturated with constitutional protections. But from this elevated, elite-right status, the right to counsel casts a shadow over the other, less prominent criminal procedure rights. Elaborating on this paradoxical aspect of the Gideon right -- that the very prominence of the right tends to dilute other rights, or at least justify limitations on non-Gideon rights -- this essay analyzes the judicial and scholarly practice of employing the counsel right as a cudgel to curb other rights.

This piece now joins my list of must-read pieces providing a provocative perspective during a period that has included lots of Gideon celebrations now that the decision is 50 years old. Here are links to posts noting other articles and commentary in this milieu:

• "Race and the Disappointing Right to Counsel"
• "Gideon Skepticism"
• "The Right to Counsel: Badly Battered at 50" (at a great moment for hope and change)
• Did Gideon enable the war on drugs, the sentencing severity revolution and modern mass incarceration?