DISTRICT JUDGE BRINGS DEMANDS FOR GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE LOCAL LEVEL

NOVEMBER 2020 // HOUSTON, TX: Native Houstonian Brittanye Morris has devoted her career to a variety of areas of law, concentrating on property law in and around the Houston area. Morris, a 29-year old woman of color and a rising force for common-sense government, recently won an uncontested race to become Harris County District Court Judge for the 333rd District in Houston, TX. At a time where citizens are demanding that politicians serve constituents’ interests at an unprecedented decibel, Morris’s election brings some harmony to an otherwise cacophonous fever pitch.

Morris entered the Democratic Primary race for the judgeship against incumbent Daryl Moore. She defeated Moore on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, topping him by a landslide 56,175 votes. This sizable victory highlights Morris’s own efforts as a competent conduit for justice. It also highlights the overwhelming support she’s earned from her local community.

She brings fresh eyes, grit, and a wealth of life experience to the bench. Seated before a soul food feast at iconic Harlem eatery Sylvia’s Restaurant, Morris recounted her incredible journey with vigor.

Morris’s mother was an educator in the public school system, and her father a police lieutenant. An achiever since childhood, Morris earned her Bachelor’s in Political Science with a minor in History from the University of Houston, and her Juris Doctorate from Thurgood Marshall School of Law at the prestigious Texas Southern University.

A driving spirit and fierce intellect carried Morris through the difficulty of paying her own way through law school, balancing a full course load against part-time shifts at the local post office. “It was just impossible,” she said emphatically. Fortunately, ‘impossible’ was only a feeling and not a fact. Morris graduated on time and continued to intern for the Bankruptcy Trustee’s Office while committing herself to studying for the grueling bar exam. “It wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination,” she said, “but I think it's those trying times that really made me appreciate where I have gotten in life.”

Morris’s experience-rich background lends a core competency to her legal expertise. “I’ve been through situations to where you're working the best you can, and for whatever reason, your ends don't meet,” Morris recalled. “That’s a different perspective than someone who had a life where things were afforded to them.” Harris County is the third most populous county in the United States. The Houston Metropolitan area needs genuine, representative leadership just like any East Coast hamlet or bread basket village. “The pendulum is shifting,” Morris noted. “In our community in particular, more and more people are wanting more representation. More and more people are wanting more diversity on the bench.”

Morris upholds an honest commitment to participating in the place she represents. Her professional ethos encouraged her to go grassroots, an approach which contributed to her monumental victory at the polls. “What people tend to forget so often is that it's your community, your constituency, that gives you that seat,” she stated. “It is not yours. It belongs to the citizens and the community in which you serve.” Mobilizing her passion for community engagement and lived experience, Morris regularly attended town halls and civic club meetings across the county. She went to the neighborhood clubs and visited different religious organizations. “The courts are tools for the people to access justice. So in a true sense of that, then why not go into the community?” she asked.

“First and foremost, I want to create a judiciary that's going to be open, accessible, and transparent,” Morris said. More tangibly, she’d like to pioneer teen court programs in local high schools, which allow students to foster their own peer-determined legal precedents. She’s interested in avenues that expand and nourish collective civic engagement. In order for sweeping change to take root, our government needs an infusion of authenticity in the form of real people resolved to enact meaningful, actionable change. Morris is less talk and more walk. She moves from a place of informed balance, equidistant from head and heart, but marrying the unique forces of both.

She pointed out that “when you think about the Greats of any time, they weren't Great at their time. It wasn't until long after they left this Earth that they became historical icons.” Rather than worrying about how history might remember her, Morris focuses her energy where it’s feasibly useful instead. “I really feel like representation matters, and certain voices have been marginalized,” Morris said. “But at the end of the day, for me, it's very important just to live in a way that I'll be proud of and my children will be proud of.”

For those looking to leave their own positive mark on history, Morris offered, “Be open. That’s the biggest advice I can give to anybody… It’s those opportunities, those possibilities and those twists and turns that get you where you ultimately need to be.” It’s how she managed to overcome every challenge she’s faced so far. It’s how she’ll successfully overcome those that still lie ahead.

https://www.crunchbase.com/person/brittanye-morris-judge