At present, no Justice on the Court has any experience as a criminal defense attorney representing the indigent, either as a public defender or as part of an assigned counsel system, despite the fact that the vast majority of criminal defendants, over 80% in state courts and over 66% in federal court, are indigent. The Court regularly devotes between a quarter to a third of its docket to criminal cases. President Obama has said that he wants to nominate someone who understands how the law "affects the daily reality of people’s lives". With that in mind, it is time to nominate someone who knows how the criminal justice system treats defendants who are too poor to hire a lawyer. We urge the President to nominate a current or former public defender or member of an assigned counsel program.
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