General Counsel; Director, Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project
jmorris@cdt.org

John B. Morris, Jr. is CDT's General Counsel, and the Director of its "Internet Standards, Technology and Policy Project." Prior to joining CDT in 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.

From May 1999 through April 2000, Mr. Morris served as director of CDT's Broadband Access Project (while on leave from his firm). 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 computers and politics. In the mid-1970's, as a staff member on Capitol Hill, he helped to promote the use of computer software to manage and improve constituent communications. In 1981, Mr. Morris joined a D.C.-area computer company, where he was one of the lead system designers of a constituent management software system for Members of Congress. In 1985, he co-founded Intelligent Solutions, Inc., which developed the leading constituent services product used on Capitol Hill 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, worked for three years as a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia, and then joined Jenner & Block in Washington in 1990.

In addition to his work with CDT, Mr. Morris is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School in New York City.

Publications and Testimony

2008

• Leslie Harris and John Morris, We've Met the Enemy and it is the Messenger, The Huffington Post, May 28 2008.

2007

• RFC 4745, “Common Policy: A Document Format for Expressing Privacy Preferences” (with H. Schulzrinne, H. Tschofenig, J. Cuellar, J. Polk, J. Rosenberg) (Internet Engineering Task Force 2007)
• John Morris and Jon Peterson, Who's Watching You Now?, IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine, Vol. 5, Issue 1 (January/February 2007)

2006

• Leslie Harris and John Morris, Hensarling Bill Would Do Too Little, and Too Much, Roll Call, March 14, 2006

2005

• Testimony before the Federal Election Commission concerning Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 2005-10 The Internet: Definitions of "Public Communication" and "Generic Campaign Activity" and Disclaimers June 28, 2005
• John Morris, "Privacy and VoIP Technology," I/S Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society, Vol. 1 (2005)
• John Morris, "The Past, Present, and Future of Internet Censorship and Free Speech Advocacy," in "Defending the First: Commentary on First Amendment Issues and Cases," J. Russomanno, editor (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers 2005)

2004

• John Morris, Look at the Bare Naked Facts [pdf] Legal Times March 2004
• "Free Speech on the Internet," in Internet Law and Practice (West Publishing Company 2002, updated 2004) (with Julie M. Carpenter and Jodie L. Kelley)
• RFC 3694, “Threat Analysis of the Geopriv Protocol” (with M. Danley, D. Mulligan, J. Peterson) (Internet Engineering Task Force 2004)
• RFC 3693, “Geopriv Requirements” (with J. Cuellar, D. Mulligan, J. Peterson, J. Polk) (Internet Engineering Task Force 2004)
• "Internet Technical Standards Setting Bodies: The Public Policy Venues of the Twenty-First Century," in The Standards Edge: Dynamic Tension, S. Bolin, editor (2004)

2003

• John Morris, Alan Davidson, Policy Impact Assessments: Considering the Public Interest in Internet Standards Development [pdf] TPRC September 2003
• "ENUM: Mapping Telephone Numbers onto the Internet -- Potential Benefits With Public Policy Risks," April 2003
• Testimony of John Morris before the Judiciary Committee, Maryland House Of Delegates, on House Bill 661 March 4, 2003

2002

• Alan Davidson, John Morris and Rob Courtney, Strangers in a Strange Land: Public Interest Advocacy and Internet Standards [pdf] TPRC September 2002
• John Morris, "The Elements of Location Tracking and Privacy Protection," in "Geographic Location in the Internet," B. Sarikaya, editor (Kluwer Academic Publisher 2002)

2000

• Jerry Berman and John B. Morris, Jr., "The Broadband Internet: The End of the Equal Voice?", CFP, April 2000
• Testimony with Jerry Berman before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Communications on the AmericaOnLine-Time Warner merger March 2, 2000