Martin Ferdinand Morris

Martin Ferdinand Morris
Martin Ferdinand Morris United States Circuit Judge
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
In office 1893–1905
Appointed by	President Grover Cleveland
Succeeded by	Louis E. McComas

Martin Ferdinand Morris (3 December 1834, Washington, D.C. – 12 September 1909, Washington, D.C.) was an American lawyer.

Descended from an Irish Catholic family, he was educated at Georgetown University, from which he graduated in 1854. On leaving Georgetown, he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Frederick, Maryland, to prepare himself for the priesthood. His ambition, however, could not be realized, as the death of his father left him the sole support of his mother and sisters.

In 1863, he began the practice of law in Baltimore, Maryland, and in 1867 moved to Washington to enter into partnership with Richard T. Merrick. He continued a member of the firm Merrick and Morris until the death of Merrick (1885), when he formed a partnership with George E. Hamilton, and continued actively to practice his profession, being connected with important litigation both in the local courts and in the Supreme Court.

He was appointed by President Grover Cleveland an associate Justice of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upon the establishment of that Court in 1893.

He was one of the founders of Georgetown Law School (1871), then under the direction of P. F. Healy, S.J.

In 1877, he received from Georgetown the degree of LL.D.

He wrote "Lectures on the History of the Development of Constitutional and Civil Liberty" (1808); also numerous monographs and addresses.