Bruce Morrison

Bruce Andrew Morrison (born October 8, 1944) is an American attorney, lobbyist and Democratic Party politician who represented Connecticut in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 1991. In 1990, he was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Governor of Connecticut. As chair of the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship, he was a primary author of the Immigration Act of 1990, one of only two major immigration bills in United States history to increase legal immigration. He has been an advocate for Irish-American causes and American involvement in the Irish peace process, including acting as a key intermediary between Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and President Bill Clinton.

Born in New York City, Morrison was adopted at a young age by George and Dorothea Morrison, who lived in Northport, Long Island. As a child, he attended public schools and graduated from Northport High School in 1962.

Morrison attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and graduated in three years in 1965 with a degree in chemistry.

He received a master's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970. At Illinois, he founded the Graduate Student Association as an advocacy organization for the over 8000 graduate students on campus. He was elected and re-elected as the first chairman of the group. In 1970, he worked as a special assistant to the dean of students.

Morrison received a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1973. Among his classmates were future president Bill Clinton, future Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, future ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton, future Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, and future U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. While at Yale Law School, he worked for Greater Boston Legal Services, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and New Haven Legal Assistance Association.

In June 1973, Morrison became a staff attorney with New Haven Legal Assistance Association (LAA), one of the earliest programs to provide civil legal services to the poor. He was promoted to managing attorney a year late and became executive director in 1976. During his tenure at LAA, he was a mentor to many future litigators and judges. He was lead counsel in numerous successful class action cases based on federal Constitutional and statutory claims. He repeatedly argued in the Connecticut Appellate and Supreme Courts. He also lobbied on behalf of low income clients in the Connecticut legislature and helped draft landmark Landlord-Tenant reform legislation.

On a national level, Morrison was a leader of the Project Advisory Group representing the legal services programs from around the country. He advocated for these programs before the federal Legal Services Corporationa and the Congress, including the successful campaign that prevented the defunding of legal services proposed by President Ronald Reagan.

In 1982, Morrison mounted a successful grass roots campaign for Congress in Connecticut's 3rd congressional district. He defeated the party-endorsed Democrat in a primary and then defeated Republican incumbent Larry DeNardis by 1,687 votes in the general election. After narrowly defeating DeNardis again in 1984, he won easy re-elections in 1986 and 1988.