National Voting Rights Institute
Mr. Bonifaz is also the founder of the National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI), where he most recently served as General Counsel. In 2006, NVRI formed a partnership with Demos (US think tank), and as of January 1, 2007, Bonifaz signed on as Senior Legal Fellow with Demos. Founded in 1994, NVRI serves as a prominent legal and public education center dedicated to protecting the right of all citizens to vote and to participate in the electoral process on an equal and meaningful basis.
For his work with NVRI, he is a 1999 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, also known as a "genius" award. In awarding the five-year fellowship, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation stated:
Bonifaz, a public interest lawyer, uses innovative litigation to reexamine campaign finance reform arguments typically debated on first amendment grounds. Through the National Voting Rights Institute, an organization he founded, Bonifaz recasts the legal arguments to focus on fourteenth amendment protections, challenging the relationship between money and politics.
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