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John Morris,
Center for Democracy & Technology
John B. Morris, Jr. is the Director of CDT's "Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project." Prior to joining CDT in April 2001, Mr. Morris was a partner in the law firm of Jenner & Block, where he litigated groundbreaking cases in Internet and First Amendment law. He was a lead counsel in the ACLU v. Reno/American Library Association v. U.S. Dep't of Justice case, in which the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and extended to speech on the Internet the highest level of constitutional protection. In that case, Mr. Morris was responsible for the development of the factual presentation concerning how the Internet works, a presentation that served as the foundation for the Supreme Court's landmark decision.
Mr. Morris's ties to CDT are not new. From May 1999 through April 2000, he took a leave of absence from his law firm to serve as director of CDT's Broadband Access Project. The Project undertook a comprehensive assessment of the legal, policy, and factual issues surrounding the emergence of broadband Internet access technologies.
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Morris had extensive experience with both computers and politics. In the mid-1970's, as a staff member on Capitol Hill, Morris helped to promote the use of computer software to manage and improve constituent communications. In 1981, Mr. Morris joined the Datatel Minicomputer Company, where he was one of the lead system designers of the original version of the Quorum constituent management software. In 1985, he co-founded Intelligent Solutions, Inc., which took over development of Quorum and built it into the leading constituent services product used by Members of Congress today.
Mr. Morris received his B.A. magna cum laude with distinction from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was the Managing Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Thomas A. Clark of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and worked for three years as a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. He joined Jenner & Block in 1990.
March 2005