II 

117TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 5247 

To enforce the Sixth Amendment right to the assistance of effective counsel 

at all stages of the adversarial process, to confer jurisdiction upon the 

district courts of the United States to provide declaratory and injunctive 

relief against systemic violations of such right, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 13, 2022 

Mr. BOOKER introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To enforce the Sixth Amendment right to the assistance 

of effective counsel at all stages of the adversarial process, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of 

the United States to provide declaratory and injunctive 

relief against systemic violations of such right, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Equal Justice Under 

5 Law Act of 2022’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. EFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—An indigent individual facing 

3 criminal prosecution or juvenile delinquency in a State 

4 court shall be entitled to the effective assistance of coun5 sel, as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment and the 14th 

6 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, at 

7 the expense of the State. 

8 (b) DELEGATION.—Each State shall secure effective 

9 assistance of counsel for indigent defendants, regardless 

10 of whether the State delegates fiscal or administrative au11 thority over the indigent defense function to a political 

12 subdivision of the State. 

13 (c) INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE.—For purposes of this 

14 section, the assistance of counsel is ineffective if the per15 formance of counsel was not reasonable under prevailing 

16 professional norms. 

17 SEC. 3. REMEDY. 

18 (a) CLASS ACTION AUTHORIZED.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—If a State official or 1 or 

20 more political subdivisions of the State fails on a 

21 systemic basis to guarantee the right to the assist22 ance of effective counsel as guaranteed by the Sixth 

23 Amendment and the 14th Amendment to the Con24 stitution of the United States, including delay of 

25 counsel and denial of counsel at critical stages in26 cluding bail hearings, an individual aggrieved by a 


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1 violation of section 2 may commence a civil class ac2 tion in an appropriate district court of the United 

3 States to seek declaratory, injunctive, or other equi4 table relief. 

5 (2) EVIDENCE.—To prevail in a class action de6 scribed in paragraph (1), structural evidence, such 

7 as statistics and national standards, may be pro8 bative of the existence of systemic denials of counsel 

9 and may be sufficient evidence, if the trier of fact 

10 is persuaded by a preponderance of all evidence pre11 sented at trial. 

12 (b) ATTORNEY’S FEES.—In any action or proceeding 

13 under this section, the court, in its discretion, may allow 

14 the prevailing party, other than a named official of a State 

15 or political subdivision of a State, a reasonable attorney’s 

16 fee as part of the costs. In awarding an attorney’s fee 

17 under this subsection, the court, in its discretion, may in18 clude expert fees as part of the attorney’s fee. 

19 (c) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this section 

20 shall restrict any right that any individual has under any 

21 other statute or under common law to seek redress for 

22 a violation of the right to counsel. 


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1 SEC. 4. EDWARD BYRNE MEMORIAL JUSTICE ASSISTANCE 

2 GRANT PROGRAM. 

3 Section 501(b) of the Omnibus Crime Control and 

4 Safe Streets Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3751(b)) is amended 

5 by inserting ‘‘, in consultation with public defenders,’’ be6 fore ‘‘may’’. 

Æ 


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