re: #224 Dark_Falcon

That would seem hard, given the right to counsel is clearly written into the Constitution. Even if one believed it does not cover the funding of public defenders, I cannot see how that could be extended to someone paying for their own lawyer. Unless, that is, the person making the argument does not like the Constitution in the first place, in which case they are something other than a conservative, at least as I define that term.

Definitions have changed. If you look at the silly mental gymnastics people like David Barton can perform with the Constitution, it’s easy to believe they could find a way to subvert the right to counsel. Their campaigns against abortion and gay rights pay no heed to explicit rights like due process or search and seizure, let alone the implied right to privacy. That they want to abolish these rights, and therefore do not seriously respect the Constitution, is not seriously in doubt.