Franita Tolson

Franita Tolson is the Betty T. Ferguson Professor of Voting Rights at Florida State University College of Law. Professor Tolson’s scholarship and teaching focus on the areas of election law, constitutional law, legal history and employment discrimination. Recently, she has written on the federalism implications of partisan gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Her research has been published in leading law reviews, and she has written or appeared as a commentator for various mass media outlets.

Prior to joining the Florida State Law faculty, Professor Tolson was a visiting assistant professor at Northwestern University School of Law. Before entering academia, she clerked for the Honorable Ann Claire Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Honorable Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of Illinois. Professor Tolson is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, where she was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review and won the Thomas Mulroy Prize for Oral Advocacy in the Hinton Moot Court Competition.