New public defender office will assist defendants in Supreme Court
Defendants who cannot afford quality legal representation in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court will be able to get assistance from a newly established office supporting public defenders. (Photo by Kent Nishimura for the Washington Post)
The federal judiciary has approved a new office that will help improve the quality of representation for indigent defendants with cases in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Law360 reports that the Judicial Conference of the United States, the federal judiciary’s policymaking body, authorized the creation of the Supreme Court Advocacy Project during its biannual meeting Tuesday.
Geremy Kamens, the federal public defender for the Eastern District of Virginia, told Law360 that the project, with initial support from Kamens’ office, will eventually become its own entity that will provide resources and training materials for public defenders and court-appointed attorneys representing clients before the high court.
“There’s an incredible imbalance when it comes to litigation before the Supreme Court when you have lawyers, on one side, from the [U.S. solicitor general’s office] who are focused on a day-to-day basis on Supreme Court cases and defense lawyers who aren’t,” Kamens told Law360.
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