by Jorge Gomez • 5 min read
Please join us in congratulating First Liberty Senior Counsel Jordan Pratt on his appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Florida Fifth District Court of Appeal.
Jordan has been a member of First Liberty’s legal team since 2021. He’s been at the forefront of our recent defense in federal appeals court on behalf of His Tabernacle Family Church, that is challenging a discriminatory New York law that prohibits firearms at places of worship, but not in most secular establishments. Among many legal matters and cases, Jordan has also led the effort to defend our clients who’ve faced unlawful religious discrimination at work, such as Valerie Kloosterman, a physician assistant who was fired by the University of Michigan Health system because of her religious beliefs.
“Jordan is an excellent choice to sit on the court of appeal. He possesses a brilliant legal mind and clear commitment to the rule of law. We wish him the best,” said First Liberty President Kelly Shackelford.
David Hacker, First Liberty’s Vice President of Litigation and Senior Counsel added, “Jordan has been a wonderful colleague and a true champion of religious liberty for all Americans. His clear writing, sharp mind and breadth of experience will serve him well as an appellate judge.”
It’s an incredible honor that one of our very own will take a seat on Florida’s bench. We are tremendously proud of Jordan. He will be missed at First Liberty, but we are excited for the impact he will have on the bench. We wish him the very best as he begins this important new chapter in his already stellar legal career.
Before joining First Liberty, Jordan served in various roles in state and federal government: as senior counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice, deputy general counsel in the U.S. Small Business Administration and deputy solicitor general in the Florida Office of the Attorney General.
At the Department of Justice, he advised the White House on judicial nominations and worked to secure the confirmation of numerous federal judges. As a Florida deputy solicitor general, he defended Florida’s most important policies at every level of the state and federal court systems, with successful arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the Florida Supreme Court and Florida’s First District Court of Appeal.
Jordan graduated as a co-valedictorian of his undergraduate class at the University of Florida. He received his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Florida College of Law, where he was a law review editor and president of the school’s Federalist Society and Christian Legal Society chapters.
After law school, Jordan served as a law clerk to the Hon. Harvey E. Schlesinger on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and the Hon. Jennifer W. Elrod on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Jordan has held several fellowships, including an Olin–Searle Fellowship at Florida State University’s College of Law, and has published scholarship in the Tennessee Law Review, the Nebraska Law Review and the Mississippi Law Journal.
For Americans worried about their religious freedom and growing attacks on their constitutional rights, Jordan is precisely who you want as a judge. As an attorney at First Liberty who represented and worked on behalf of clients of all faiths, beliefs and creeds, he knows what it means to give all Americans equal treatment before the law. His record and experience show he will treat all cases fairly and rule according to principle, not politics. He is someone who will uphold the rule of law and who believes in applying the Constitution according to its original meaning and intent.
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