The Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn Defender Services, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, The Bronx Defenders, and New York County Defender Services are joining a national Day of Action for Public Defense, in response to the plight of San Francisco Chief Public Defender Mano Raju, who was recently held in contempt and fined $26,000 for refusing to accept additional felony cases one day a week.

“Today, we join public defenders across the country to sound the alarm: the constitutional right to counsel is being systematically dismantled,” reads a statement from the organizations. “What happened in San Francisco is a warning to all of us. When a public defender is punished for refusing to take on workloads that make effective representation impossible, it sends a chilling message — that the system values speed over justice, and appearances over constitutional rights.”

“Here in New York City, we see the same structural inequities every day,” the statement continues. “Public defenders are paid significantly less than other system stakeholders, even as we shoulder the responsibility of protecting the fundamental rights of people facing the loss of their liberty. These conditions do not just impact public defenders — they undermine fairness, weaken the integrity of our courts, and threaten the rule of law itself.”

The organizations are calling on government funders, both in Albany and at City Hall, to address longstanding pay disparities, invest in hiring and retaining public defense staff, and ensure that caseloads are consistent with national standards for effective representation. Attorneys will wear black today to mark a constitutional breaking point and to make clear that the right to counsel must be more than a promise on paper.