The ongoing struggle of public defenders in the justice system.

The promise of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Gideon v. Wainwright that guaranteed criminal defendants the right to a lawyer has been challenged by budgets and high demand. Public defenders face understaffing, crushing caseloads, underpayment, and undervaluation, leading to a lack of resources and respect. The American legal system is built on the idea that evenly matched adversaries will clash in court, but this is not the case for people with lower incomes. The Biden administration is making access to the courts a priority, reestablishing a standalone Access to Justice office and putting a former public defender in charge. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have introduced legislation to create a new source of grant funding to hire public defenders and raise their pay to level the playing field with prosecutor salaries.