The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting a class-action lawsuit filed by the New York Civil Liberties Union accuses Governor Cuomo and the state of New York of perpetuating a system that violates the rights of people who cannot afford to hire lawyers.

"To truly guarantee adequate representation for low-income defendants, we must ensure that public defenders' caseloads allow them to do an effective job," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. "The Department of Justice is committed to addressing the inequalities that unfold every day in America's courtrooms."

It is the first time the Department of Justice has weighed in on public defense in a state court proceeding in more than 50 years, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to legal representation, but the lawsuit claims that public defenders are so overworked and overmatched that poor people essentially receive no legal defense at all.

"As New Yorkers we don't expect to be grouped with Arizona, Texas and Alabama, but our justice system has been compared to theirs because for decades the state has not been properly funding the system," said Corey Stoughton, the senior staff attorney at NYCLU.

Stoughton said there are a range of outcomes for people caught up in the criminal justice system. Some people languish in jail for months, and they are innocent. Some people go to jail for years, when they probably did make a mistake but should have only been incarcerated for months. Some people should have been out waiting their charges and in the meantime lose their house and their job. The consequences, she said, all boil down to the same problem: there aren't enough resources.

"It is lack of state funds and state commitment. At first you think there are no politics behind lawyers and poor people accused of crime, but at bottom the costs of the system are being borne by taxpayers, because you have people in jail who shouldn't be, and that costs us hundreds of dollars every day. They are in prison for too long, and when they come back into society and can't get a job, they become a drain on the economy," Stoughton said.

If the lawsuit succeeds, the state could be forced to take over the public-defense system currently run by county governments, according to The New York Times.

NYCLU filed a lawsuit, Hurrell-Harring v. New York, seven years ago asking the court to declare New York's public defense system unconstitutional. Defendants in the case are Onondaga, Schuyler and Washington and Suffolk County, Long Island.

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"This is about the state's failure to give lawyers the resources they need. Lawyers are carrying hundreds and hundreds of cases at a time. They don't have the time to go out to court appearances. They don't have the time to investigate charges," Stoughton said.

"For decades now, since 1965, the public defense system has been broken, and the state hasn't been able to do anything about it. The criminal justice system relies on there being a level playing field -- the prosecutor accuses someone of a crime, after that a person gets a fair shake of defending themselves, and that all depends on having a lawyer that has the time and resources to put up a defense."

The lawsuit is set for trial for Oct. 7 in Albany State Supreme Court.