Jessica Morton is Senior Counsel at Democracy Forward, where she has represented non-profits and individuals in both litigation and regulatory advocacy.  Her work has included challenges to abuses of executive power at the state level, advocacy for federal criminal legal system reform, environmental justice, and other issues.

Before joining Democracy Forward, she was a litigator at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where she practiced complex civil litigation at all three levels of the federal court system.  Jessica also maintained a significant pro bono practice focused on voting rights, civil rights, and criminal justice.  She has been honored as a co-recipient of the Young Lawyer of the Year Award from the Young Lawyers Section of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia.  Jessica has also served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center.

Jessica clerked for the Honorable John D. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the Honorable Albert Diaz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  Jessica graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where she served as Executive Articles Editor of the Michigan Law Review.  She also holds an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame.

Jessica is a member of the District of Columbia and Illinois bars.

Featured Work
  • Civil Rights

Urging the DOJ to reverse a legally flawed Trump-era Memo limiting COVID-19 emergency home confinement

We, along with prison reform, criminal justice, and civil rights orgs, sent a letter to DOJ calling for the reversal of a faulty memo that would require thousands of prisoners placed on home confinement to be returned to prison.

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  • Corruption
  • Labor

Challenging Abuses of Power in Texas

Fighting to stop Texas Gov. Abbott’s unconstitutional act to defund the separate and coequal Legislative Branch on behalf of state workers and the Texas AFL-CIO, and alongside a coalition of legislators and caucuses.

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  • Civil Rights

Demanding the DOJ retract an unlawful, anti-science Trump-era statement on forensics that puts the innocent at risk

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