George Orwell began his celebrated essay on Charles Dickens by remarking that Dickens was “one of those writers who are well worth stealing.…The Marxist claims him as ‘almost’ a Marxist, the Catholic claims him as ‘almost’ a Catholic, and both claim him as a champion of the proletariat.” Even Chesterton, Orwell pointed out, “credit[ed] Dickens with his own highly individual branch of medievalism.” Everyone wanted Dickens as an ally; everyone saw in him a sympathetic soul.

Bill Stuntz is the Charles Dickens of criminal procedure scholars. Burkean skeptics praise him as a model Burkean skeptic. Law-and-order conservatives enlist him in arms against the legacy of the Warren Court. Liberals embrace him as a critic of overcriminalization, excessive punishment, and inequality. Even scholars assigned to critique Stuntz's work have usually paused first to make clear that, really, on the important matters, they see eye to eye with him.