The Honorable Ernest E. Morris Jr. has been appointed to serve a six-year term as Judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands for the District of St. Croix, the Honorable Debra S. Watlington, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands, announced Thursday.
Morris is a native son of the territory and specifically the island of St. Croix. As valedictorian of the 1996 graduating class of St. Joseph High School, he went on to earn two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Spanish from Yale University. In 2005, he earned his Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law, according to the press release.
Upon completion of law school, Morris returned home to the Virgin Islands, where he worked as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Edgar D. Ross and the Honorable Julio A. Brady before serving as appellate law clerk to Associate Justice of the Virgin Islands Supreme Court, the Honorable Maria M. Cabret. A consummate public servant, Morris has worked as a territorial public defender, assistant legal counsel of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, and chief legal counsel of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, the press release stated.
His work in the private sector included serving as corporate counsel for Viya and opening his own law practice, the Morris Legal Group. Effective Nov. 10, 2019, he returned to public service upon his first appointment to a 4-year term as Magistrate Judge of the Superior Court in the District of St. Croix. He was re-appointed to a second term effective Nov. 11, 2023, the release stated.
