Panelists for the National Commission on the Voting Rights Act Hearing in Jackson, Mississippi on October 29, 2005 Deborah McDonald Voting Rights Attorney Deborah McDonald is a private attorney practicing in Natchez, Mississippi, and in addition, currently serves as a judge for the Fayette Municipal Court. She is a former Executive Director of the Southwest Mississippi Legal Services. McDonald possesses an extensive background in cases involving voting rights and employment discrimination. She currently serves as a member of the Magnolia Bar Association, the National Bar Association and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. McDonald graduated from Alcorn State University and the University of Mississippi School of Law. Robert B. McDuff Law Offices of Robert McDuff Robert B. McDuff is a civil rights and criminal defense attorney practicing in Jackson, Mississippi. His practice includes trial and appellate work in cases throughout the country, including four cases that he has argued in the United States Supreme Court. His most recent argument in the Supreme Court was a Mississippi congressional redistricting case, where he represented a group of civil rights activists in the litigation over district lines. He has represented black voters in several cases in the south seeking to increase the number of black-majority election districts for public officials, including members of congress, state legislators, and state court judges. Prior to opening his practice in Jackson in 1992, Mr. McDuff was an attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, DC; a member of the faculty of the University of Mississippi Law School, where he directed a federal court public defender program; an attorney with the civil rights law firm of Ratner & Sugarmon in Memphis, TN; and a law clerk to the Hon. William Wayne Justice, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. Mr. McDuff has handled cases involving voting rights, police misconduct, free speech, indigent defense funding, access to the courts, abortion rights, school prayer, and racial discrimination in employment and housing. His criminal practice is comprised of both retained and appointed cases, including several death penalty cases. He was one of the defense lawyers who obtained an acquittal in the retrial of Mississippi death row inmate Sabrina Butler, who was set free after spending six years on death row due to a previous conviction and death sentence that was later reversed on appeal. Mr. McDuff is a recipient of the Pro Bono Service Award of the International Human Rights Law Group; the NAACP Legal Award of the Mississippi Conference NAACP; and the Ernst Borinski Civil Libertarian Award presented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi. He is vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Center for Justice and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. A native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Mr. McDuff is a graduate of Millsaps College and Harvard Law School. Carroll Rhodes Law Offices of Carroll Rhodes Carroll Rhodes, a solo practitioner in Hazlehurst, Mississippi has been instrumental in the effort to enforce the Voting Rights Act in Mississippi and in establishing black-majority judicial districts. He has notably served as lead counsel in numerous voting rights cases including: Welch v. McKenzie, involving a Voting Rights Act challenge to episodic election practices. This case was the first episodic challenge brought in the United States after the 1982 amendment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In Martin v. Allain, Rhodes successfully argued for the plaintiffs in a statewide class action involving a Voting Rights Act challenge to the method of election for a state’s trial judges. In Magnolia Bar Association, Inc., v. Lee, Rhodes served as lead counsel in the first case in which Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act was used in challenging the method of election for a state’s Supreme Court judges. Before establishing his own practice, Rhodes served as a judge in the Municipal Court of Hazlehurst and also worked as a Staff Attorney for the Central Mississippi Legal Services. As an expert on voting rights, Rhodes has lectured and written extensively on the subject. He is the author of “Changing the Constitutional Guarantee of Voting Rights from Color-Conscious to Color-Blind: Judicial Activism by the Rehnquist Court” (Mississippi Law Review, 1996) and “Enforcing the Voting Rights Act in Mississippi Through Litigation” (Mississippi Law Journal, 1987). Among his many awards for dedicated service to the Mississippi community, Mr. Rhodes is the recipient of National Conference of Black Lawyers, Lawyer of the Year Award (1992), the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, National Builders Award (1991) and the American Bar Association, John Minor Wisdom Professionalism and Professional Service Award (1990). Mr. Rhodes is a graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Law. Brenda Wright (click here to view testimony) Managing Attorney, National Voting Rights Institute Brenda Wright is the Managing Attorney for the National Voting Rights Institute in Boston, Massachusetts. Through litigation and public education, the Institute aims to vindicate the constitutional right of all citizens, regardless of their economic status, to full and meaningful participation in the electoral process. Ms. Wright directs NVRI’s nationwide litigation program and has served as lead counsel for NVRI in its landmark cases in Vermont and New Mexico defending the constitutionality of campaign spending limits. Before joining the Institute in 1997, Ms. Wright served as Director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C., litigating cases throughout the country to protect the voting rights of citizens of color. She successfully argued the first Supreme Court case involving the 1993 “Motor-Voter” law, Young v. Fordice, which challenged Mississippi’s effort to establish a racially discriminatory dual registration requirement for voting in federal and state elections. Ms. Wright has testified before Congress and state legislatures and has authored numerous publications on voting rights and campaign finance reform issues. She received her law degree from Yale Law School and her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. Ellis Turnage Voting Rights Attorney, Turnage Law Office Back to main page