BuckeyeBlog

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported this weekend on a crisis in the Hamilton County Public Defender’s office.

It seems clear from this article that Hamilton County is not meeting the demands placed on the public defender system, but what is not clear to many is why this system exists in the first place.

The Constitution, as it was originally understood, places limitations on government action. It does not, however, require action of the government. This is consistent with the founders’ view of individual rights, the exercise of which do not require action on the part of others. For instance, Congress may not abridge the freedom of speech. This grants individuals the right to speak, but it does not require the government to provide them with the means to do so (for instance, a radio program). The Supreme Court recently affirmed the individual right to own weapons, but it did not find an obligation of the government to supply each citizen a handgun. Late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist accurately described this interpretation of constitutional rights in his 1989 opinion of DeShaney v. Winnebago County: (more…)

This , if true, is as big a deal as the Commerce Clause.

Maybe President Bush can appoint Janice Rogers Brown to the Supreme Court before he goes.

On June 19^th, interim Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers praised the Supreme Court’s opinion in Indiana v. Edwards in a press release titled “U.S. Supreme Court Rules Mentally Incompetent Defendants Have No Right To Represent Themselves.”

Rogers’ tone is such that she believes denying constitutional rights to defendants is a good thing. The case establishes two different tiers of competency; a lower threshold that requires the defendant to be competent to stand trial, which generally means to be able to understand the charges against him and to assist his counsel, while the upper threshold requires a greater degree of competency, a level sufficient, in the eyes of the state, for the defendant to represent himself. (more…)