SALT LAKE CITY — The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the state of Utah for what it says is a failed public defense system that deprives indigent defendants of their Sixth Amendment right.

The class action lawsuit, filed Tuesday, June 21, along with the law firm Holland & Hart, LLP, comes after a state-commissioned report by the Sixth Amendment Center that criticized Utah’s public defense system. The report, released October 2015, was followed by legislative attempts to fix the problem.

ACLU of Utah spokeswoman Anna Brower said a lawsuit was “on the table” after the report was released, and Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, successfully sponsored legislation this year creating a Utah Indigent Defense Commission to assist local jurisdictions in meeting minimum standards for public defense.

The Sixth Amendment Center report found that Utah local governments fund all indigent defense services without state money or oversight.

“We cannot have a criminal justice system with any integrity if Utahns are not ensured vigorous legal representation when facing the power of the state,” ACLU of Utah Executive Director Karen McCreary said in a statement. “But the majority of Utahns — more than 80% — who find themselves facing jail time do not have the disposable income to hire a private attorney. That is why we need, and should have, a robust public defense system statewide.”

Defendants who do not face jail time for their charges are not entitled to a public defender after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. This only affects those charged with misdemeanors, although some misdemeanor cases have jail time on the table and require public defense for the indigent.

Misdemeanor convictions are potentially devastating because they can mean losing federal housing aid, access to student loans or deportation for those in the country illegally.

In one case, a woman who pleaded guilty to writing a bad check was sent to jail at her request because she didn’t have a job and couldn’t afford the fines and restitution of more than $1,300, the report said. She didn’t have a lawyer and the charge didn’t require jail time.

The Utah Attorney General’s office, which is named as a defendant, is reviewing the lawsuit, according to the office’s general counsel Parker Douglas.

“To ask a judge to review these measures now, before any opportunity to see the results of that effort, is premature,” Douglas said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in Utah’s Third Judicial District Court, naming six individual plaintiffs, as well as multiple John Does, seeking declaratory relief.

The named plaintiffs, who are facing charges in Tooele County, Carbon County and Cache County, “have all experienced the delays and difficulties accessing counsel that are indicative of the system’s problems statewide,” Mejia said in a press release.

Associated Press reporters Lindsay Whitehurst and Michelle L. Price contributed to this article.

Follow Taylor Hintz on Twitter @TaylorHintz. Contact at 801-625-4231 or [email protected].