News & Commentary written by Julie Murray

Julie Murray is co-director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s State Supreme Court Initiative (SSCI), which she co-launched in May 2023. In that capacity, Julie litigates a wide range of civil rights and civil liberties issues in state courts around the country.

Before coming to the ACLU, Julie was a litigator at Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), where she brought challenges to restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and education. Julie served as Planned Parenthood’s lead lawyer challenging Texas’s Senate Bill 8—the state’s “bounty hunter” abortion ban—in state and federal court. She also litigated cases around the country involving privacy, due process, equal rights, and free speech claims under federal and state law.

Before PPFA, Julie served as a litigator with Public Citizen Litigation Group, where she worked on a range of cases involving constitutional law, administrative law, and the rights of consumers, workers, and students. She also clerked for Judge Marsha Berzon on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and served as a Margaret Fund Fellow at the National Women’s Law Center. Prior to law school, Julie worked at the Urban Institute and Migration Policy Institute, where she focused on qualitative and quantitative social science research.

Julie has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, two state supreme courts, and numerous other appellate and trial courts around the country. In connection with her practice, she has been quoted by national print, online, radio, and television media outlets, including NPR, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Associated Press, Reuters, Telemundo, Politico, and The Economist.

Julie has served as a Visiting Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, where she co-taught a seminar entitled Litigating State Constitutional Rights, and as a Wasserstein Public Interest Advising Fellow at Harvard Law School.

Raised in West Virginia, Julie received her law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and her bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from the University of Kentucky, where she was named a national Harry S. Truman Scholar.