Boston ? The state’s highest court ruled Wednesday that a shortage of defense lawyers caused by low pay was violating the constitutional rights of some poor defendants, and said cases must be dismissed against suspects who go without a lawyer for more than 45 days.

Ruling in a long-simmering dispute over the rate of pay for private lawyers who represent indigent people, the Supreme Judicial Court also ruled that criminal defendants could not be held more than seven days in jail without a lawyer.

In its unanimous decision, the court noted that the $30-per-hour pay for lawyers who represent indigent defendants in district court has barely changed over the last two decades and is among the lowest in the country.

“The continuation of what is now an unconstitutional state of affairs cannot be tolerated,” Justice Francis X. Spina wrote for the court.

The ruling came in two lawsuits filed on behalf of poor defendants in Hampden County by civil libertarians and the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

Lawrence, Kan., attorney Greg Robinson has asked a judge to order the state to pay him in full for his defense work on the Timothy Harrell case. The issue is set for an Aug. 12 hearing in Douglas County District Court.

Court-appointed attorneys in Douglas County haven’t had a pay increase in 16 years.