Emmet Bondurant “embodies the purpose of the ABA Medal” said American Bar Association President Mary Smith as she bestowed the association’s highest honor on the Atlanta lawyer who has pursued justice with integrity and demonstrated a commitment to community service and pro bono litigation.
The award, given to “a member of the bench or bar who has rendered conspicuous service to the cause of American jurisprudence,” was presented at the General Assembly on Aug. 2 during the ABA Annual Meeting.
Smith detailed Bondurant’s legal achievements, which are as varied as they are impressive.
In 1963, at the age of 26, he successfully argued Wesberry v. Sanders in the U.S. Supreme Court, which held for the first time that congressional districts throughout the United States must contain equal populations. This has since become known as the one person, one vote rule.
He has litigated challenges to state voter identification requirements in cases such as Democratic Party of Georgia, Inc. v. Perdue and Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, arguing that these laws unconstitutionally and deliberately burden the right to vote and disproportionately disadvantage vulnerable minorities. In 2018, he returned to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue Rucho v. Common Cause, urging the court to end the practice in which state legislatures deliberately draw voting districts to disadvantage residents based on their political views.
Bondurant worked for years to establish a uniform statewide indigent defense system. His efforts culminated in the passage of the Indigent Defense Act in 2003, under the supervision of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. He served as the council’s first chairman, from 2003-07. In addition, he serves on the advisory board of Gideon’s Promise, an organization dedicated to realizing effective representation and equal justice for marginalized communities.
Bondurant prevailed before the Georgia Supreme Court in Fleming v. Zant, establishing for Georgia the rule that execution of the mentally impaired offends constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment, a full 13 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached that same conclusion in Atkins v. Virginia.
In a groundbreaking gender equality case, Bondurant represented attorney Elizabeth Hishon in Hishon v. King & Spalding. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that law firms are subject to Title VII and prohibited from discriminating against women in partner selection.
“In short, Emmet Bondurant has devoted more than 60 years to establishing and protecting fundamental rights in America, a contribution in American jurisprudence that will endure generations beyond his remarkable career,” Smith said.
Saying he was “deeply honored and grateful” to receive the award, Bondurant said that coming out of law school he believed “deeply that there should be more to the practice of law than a socially acceptable way to earn a comfortable living.”
“Lawyers should stand for something,” he said.
Referring to the Democracy Summit held that afternoon at the meeting, Bondurant said that the role of lawyers is critical when democratic values are under attack. “You have the power that few others have to intervene and make the legal system work not merely for those with power but also for the least among us,” he said.
“We need you now more than ever,” he said of the ABA. “Not as a spectator, not as a commentator, not as a critic, but as advocates for the Constitution, the right to vote, civil rights and American democracy.”
Previous recipients of the ABA Medal include Fred Gray, Bryan Stevenson, Justice Anthony Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.
