The U.S. Supreme Court recently revisited the heavily disputed territory of “Civil Gideon” — the doctrine delineating when, if ever, indigent civil litigants are legally entitled to counsel appointed and paid for by the state. The name “Civil Gideon” comes from the 1963 landmark decision of Gideon v. Wainwright, which held that the Sixth Amendment grants indigent defendants the right to state-appointed and state-paid counsel in criminal cases.
In Turner v. Rogers, the high court confronted the case of Michael Turner, a deadbeat dad with a drug problem. After repeatedly failing to pay child support, Turner was sentenced to serve a 12-month sentence for civil contempt. At the contempt hearing, Turner did not have counsel. Neither did Rebecca Rogers, the mother of their child, who sought the hearing and asked the court to confine Turner because of his pattern of nonpayment.
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