John C. Bonifaz (born 22, June 1966, in Wilmington, DE) is an

Amherst Amherst may refer to: People * Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name * Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst'' * Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...

-based attorney and political activist specializing in constitutional law and voting rights. He is the president and co-founder of Free Speech for People. He is also the founder of the

National Voting Rights Institute The National Voting Rights Institute (NVRI) was a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy organization based in Boston, which described itself as "committed to making real the promise of American democracy that meaningful political participation and pow ...

and a former candidate for Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. In 1999, he received a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...

, popularly known as the "

genius award The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to ...

Constitutional challenge and hearings on 2003 invasion of Iraq

In February and March 2003, Mr. Bonifaz served as lead counsel for a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers, and members of

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

in '' John Doe I v. President Bush'', a constitutional challenge to President Bush's authority to wage war against

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

absent a congressional

declaration of war A declaration of war is a formal act by which one state announces existing or impending war activity against another. The declaration is a performative speech act (or the signing of a document) by an authorized party of a national government, ...

or equivalent action. He argued that the President's planned first-strike

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

violated the War Powers Clause of the US Constitution. The lawsuit was initially dismissed in February 2003 and in March 2003 the dismissal was upheld on appeal. Regarding the initial dismissal, Attorney Bonifaz said "They're not supposed to sideline ... Courts cannot shirk from responsibility when it looks like a political battle." Regarding the affirmation of the dismissal, the appeals court held "... the text of the October Resolution itself spells out justifications for a war and frames itself as an 'authorization' of such a war." Bonifaz wrote the 2004 book ''Warrior-King: The Case for Impeaching George W. Bush'', which chronicles that case and its meaning for the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

. The book argues that the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق (Kurdish languages, Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict (2003–present), I ...

was illegal. In the aftermath of the release of the

Downing Street Memo The Downing Street memo (or the Downing Street Minutes), sometimes described by critics of the Iraq War as the smoking gun memo, is the note of a 23 July 2002 secret meeting of senior British government, defence and intelligence figures discussi ...

in 2005, Bonifaz co-founded After Downing Street and wrote a memo to Congressman

John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, the Ranking Democrat on the

House Judiciary Committee The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, ...

, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach

President George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

. Bonifaz participated in a discussion with former CIA Analyst

Ray McGovern Raymond McGovern (born August 25, 1939) is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer turned political activist. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the Pres ...

led by Rep. Conyers, advocating Bush's impeachment for misrepresenting the case for the Iraq war.

National Voting Rights Institute

Bonifaz is also the founder of the

(NVRI), where he most recently served as general counsel. In 2006, NVRI formed a partnership with

Demos (US think tank) Demos is a liberal think tank based in the United States. Founded in 2000, Demos' stated mission is to "power the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy." The organization's president is Taifa Smith Butler, formerly of the Georgi ...

, 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 The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

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 First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
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.

Massachusetts Clean Elections Law

In 2002, the Massachusetts legislature declined to fund the clean elections law, a public financing measure passed by voters in 1998. Bonifaz and the NVRI sued Massachusetts on behalf of

Warren Tolman Warren Eugene Tolman (born October 23, 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American politician who has served as a member of both houses of the Massachusetts General Court. He was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts ...

, a candidate for governor who had qualified for public financing and was not receiving the money. The

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Although the claim is disputed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the SJC claims the distinction of being the oldest continuously func ...

ruled that the legislature must fund a law passed by the voters that it has not repealed. When the legislature persisted in not releasing the necessary funds to pay Tolman and other candidates, Bonifaz went to court again, and secured a ruling allowing his coalition to force the sale of state property. The legislature repealed the clean elections law after the 2002 elections.

Campaign for Secretary

In 2006, John Bonifaz ran for the Democratic nomination to be

Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts The Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth is the principal public information officer of the government of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The Secretary of the Commonwealth oversees the Corporations Division, the Elections Division, th ...

in 2006 against incumbent

William F. Galvin William Francis Galvin (born ) is an American politician who serves as the 27th Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Early life Galvin was born and raised in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston. He was taught by the Christian Brother ...

. He declared his candidacy on December 1, 2005, before it was known whether Galvin would run for re-election or for governor. Galvin won the primary election, which was held on September 19, 2006. During the campaign, Bonifaz was linked to the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

by his opponent, because he voted for Green Party presidential candidate

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...

in Massachusetts in 2000, and because he received a campaign contribution from Jill Stein, the

Green-Rainbow Party The Green-Rainbow Party (GRP) is the Massachusetts affiliate of the Green Party of the United States and a political designation in Massachusetts officially recognized by the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Up until 2020, it was ...

candidate for secretary of state. Jill Stein was one of the clients he represented in the Clean Elections lawsuit, and other clients from that case donated to his campaign, including Warren Tolman, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2002. After unenrolling from the Democratic Party prior to the 2000 election, Bonifaz later re-registered as a Democrat and has never been registered as a Green. Bonifaz's campaign focused on election reform, promoting

clean elections A publicly funded election is an election funded with money collected through income tax donations or taxes as opposed to private or corporate funded campaigns. It is a policy initially instituted after Nixon for candidates to opt into publicly f ...

same day registration In electoral systems, voter registration (or enrollment) is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register (or enroll) on an electoral roll, which is usually a prerequisite for being entitled or permitted to vote. The ru ...

, voting rights for minorities, and opposition to privately owned

voting machines A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...

with proprietary

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consist ...

Free Speech for People

Following the Citizens United decision, Bonifaz co-founded Free Speech for People wit
Jeff Clements
"Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan campaign working to restore democracy to the people and to return corporations to their place as economic rather than political entities," to quote the organization'
Bonifaz
an
Free Speech for People
advocate for a new constitutional amendment to clarify that the Bill of Rights applies to people, not corporations.

Background

Bonifaz has also litigated international human rights and environmental law cases, and, with his father Cristobal Bonifaz, has litigated against

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

regarding pollution in the

Lago Agrio oil field The Lago Agrio oil field is an oil-rich area near the city of Nueva Loja in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuador. It is located in the Western Oriente Basin. The site's hydrocarbon-bearing formations are the Cretaceous Napo and Hollin format ...

in the Ecuadorian Amazon. (Cristobal Bonifaz is a native of Ecuador.) Bonifaz's great-grandfather was Neptalí Bonifaz, who was briefly president of Ecuador in 1931.The Dubious Lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador - Part 1
/ref> A graduate of

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1987 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

in 1992, Bonifaz is married to Lissa Pierce Bonifaz. Lissa holds a doctorate in bilingual education.