The federal and state court systems of the United States hear an estimated 100 million cases a year before approximately 2,200 federal justices and 31,00 state and local judges. Ensuring equal access and due process of law for all citizens thus remains a continuing challenge for the U.S. legal system. The Sixth Amendment guarantees citizens the right to a speedy public trial as well as the right to legal counsel in criminal proceedings. In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that anyone who cannot afford an attorney in a criminal proceeding must be provided with one at public expense.

Courts have since expanded the right to legal counsel to apply to juveniles and to all phases of criminal legal proceedings, including arraignment, preliminary hearings, and plea bargaining.

Federal, state, and local governments have developed different approaches to providing "public defenders" to poor criminal defendants. Courts can assign legal counsel from local law firms on a rotating basis, or enter into contracts with law firms to provide attorneys. In other instances, states or localities have established nonprofit public-defender offices that provide legal services to the poor on a full-time basis.

Defendants in civil cases are not entitled to legal counsel at public expense. However, the United States has developed a variety of mechanisms to help ensure that those who cannot afford a lawyer still have access to the legal system.

Since the late 19th century, private organizations in many large cities such as Boston, Chicago, and New York have offered legal representation to the poor through legal aid bureaus.

In 1974, Congress established the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a private, nonprofit organization, to provide legal assistance in civil cases to those who could not afford it. LSC does not provide attorneys directly, but gives grants to local legal groups to enable such groups to provide legal services to the needy. In recent years, LSC has funded more than 170 programs across the United States, including special programs for Native Americans and migrant farm workers.

The Legal Services Corporation operates only in civil, not criminal cases, and does not take cases for monetary damages that private attorneys are willing to take on a "fee contingency" basis (meaning that the lawyers only collect a percentage of the monetary award, and only if their client wins). The LSC also cannot file class action suits.

National and state associations of lawyers encourage law firms to donate a certain percentage of their lawyers' time to assisting poor clients on a free or pro bono basis.

The largest of these associations, the American Bar Association, has created a voluntary guideline that private attorneys contribute at least 50 hours of free or pro bono legal work each year.

Equal access also means equal justice for all. Just as the poor and underprivileged deserve adequate legal representation, so, too, the rich and powerful must never be above the law. In court decisions from the earliest days of the republic to the Watergate controversy of the 1970s, the Supreme Court has consistently ruled that everyone, including the President, is subject to the laws and justice of the United States.