State Court Budget Cuts and Access to Justice

We may have 3 equal branches of government, but the Legislative Branch decides how much money each branch gets – and voters get to decide who the legislators are:

“Critics Say Budget Cuts for Courts Risk Rights,” by Jon Schwartz, NYT, November 26, 2011:

‘…“The justice system’s funding has been decreasing in constant dollars for at least two decades,” said David Boies, co-chairman of a commission formed by the American Bar Association to study court budget issues. “We are now at the point where funding failures are not merely causing inconvenience, annoyances and burdens; the current funding failures are resulting in the failure to deliver basic justice.”….‘ [Link to full article.]