A Tar Heel born and bred, Jessica returns to the John Locke Foundation after 13 years as the director of government affairs and general counsel. Hailing from Stokes County, she is an alum of North Carolina School of Science and Math and received her undergraduate and legal degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jessica received a B.A. in Peace, War, and Defense and a B.A. in History, with an emphasis on North Carolina state history. In law school, she studied North Carolina Constitutional Law under retired N.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Orr and earned the highest grade in the class.
After law school, Jessica went into private practice in Raleigh. Later, she clerked for Chief Justice Martin on the North Carolina Supreme Court. Following her clerkship, Jessica moved to Washington, D.C., where she was a constitutional litigator for six years at the Cause of Action Institute, New Civil Liberties Alliance, and, most recently, the Pacific Legal Foundation. Her litigation practice focused on combatting separation of powers violations at the state and federal levels and defending the constitutional right to earn an honest living.
In North Carolina, for example, she defended a BBQ food truck entrepreneur’s right to the “fruits of their own labor” under the North Carolina Constitution against a small town’s unduly burdensome food truck regulations. Notably, she sued the Governor and State of North Carolina during the COVID-19 pandemic for infringing on a Greenville bar owner’s right to equal protection under the law and separation of powers violations. That litigation led the Governor to change his executive orders treating private bars differently from other establishments that sold alcohol. It helped push amendments to the Emergency Management Act that addressed separation of powers constitutional violations.
Jessica’s recent work also includes advocating for individual liberty and constitutional government in the court of public opinion. Earlier this year, she testified before a Congressional Committee on the need for CFPB reform and appeared on CNN to discuss the arguments and, later, the decision in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard and UNC. She has joined Laura Coates Show on Sirius XM and other state-syndicated radio programs to break down arguments and decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and discuss important cases brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation. She has also contributed to The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, The Messenger, and of course, the Carolina Journal.
In her free time, Jessica enjoys Carolina Basketball and spending time outdoors with her French Bulldog named after her favorite French philosopher, Frédéric Bastiat.