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Bar Associations
Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant will receive this year’s ABA Medal
Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant “has pursued justice with unwavering integrity” throughout his career, according to the ABA, which on Monday announced that he would receive this year’s ABA Medal. Photo courtesy of the ABA.
Longtime civil rights advocate Emmet Bondurant “has pursued justice with unwavering integrity” throughout his career, according to the ABA, which on Monday announced that he would receive this year’s ABA Medal.
“The ABA Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the American Bar Association, and we are proud to honor Emmett Bondurant for his five decades of commitment to democratic values, equal protection, voting rights and indigent defense,” said ABA President Mary Smith in a news release.
Bondurant, founder of the Atlanta-based litigation boutique law firm Bondurant, Mixson and Elmore, successfully argued Wesberry v. Sanders when he was only 26 years old. In the 1964 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held for the first time that congressional districts must contain equal populations. This became known as the “one person, one vote” rule.
Among other significant voting rights cases, he urged the Supreme Court in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019 to end the practice in which state legislatures deliberately draw voting districts to disadvantage residents based on their political views.
The ABA also commended Bondurant for his commitment to fairness and racial justice in the criminal justice system in Georgia.
In 2003, he helped pass the Georgia Indigent Defense Act and was the first chairman of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council from 2003 to 2007. He is now on the advisory board of Gideon’s Promise, which is working toward effective representation and equal justice for marginalized communities.
In 1989, Bondurant prevailed before the Georgia Supreme Court in Fleming v. Zant. This case established the rule in Georgia that executing defendants who are mentally impaired constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court reached the same conclusion in Atkins v. Virginia 13 years later.
Bondurant also represented attorney Elizabeth Hishon in Hishon v. King & Spalding, a groundbreaking gender equality case. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1984 that firms are subject to Title VII and prohibited from discriminating against women when selecting partners.
“I was surprised and humbled to have been selected to receive the ABA Medal,” said Bondurant, who has been an ABA member for 57 years.
The ABA Medal “recognizes exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence.” Bondurant will accept the award at the ABA Annual Meeting, which convenes in Chicago from July 31 through Aug. 6.
Past recipients include Supreme Court Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Felix Frankfurter, Thurgood Marshall, William J. Brennan Jr., Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer; civil rights leader Fred Gray; ethics leader Lawrence Fox; World Justice Project founder and former ABA President William Neukom; social justice activist Bryan Stevenson; Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski; and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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