Kristy Parker

Guest Author

Kristy Parker (@KPNatsFan) has been a Counsel at Protect Democracy since 2017, where she leads counsel teams in El Paso County v. Trump, a successful challenge to President Trump’s use of an emergency proclamation to build the border wall now on appeal in the Fifth Circuit, and PEN American Center v. Trump, a First Amendment challenge to President Trump’s threats and retaliatory acts against the press that is ongoing in the Southern District of New York.

Kristy previously served for nineteen years in the U.S. Department of Justice, most recently for fifteen years in the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division, where she prosecuted police excessive force, hate crimes, and human trafficking cases, as a Trial Attorney, Special Litigation Counsel, and Deputy Chief.  During her tenure, Ms. Parker won the Civil Rights Division’s Walter Barnett Award for Excellence in Advocacy and the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service. In 2009, she was named Top Prosecutor of the Year by the Women in Federal Law Enforcement. Kristy received her D.Phil in Modern History from the University of Oxford and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, after which she clerked for the Hon. Stephanie K. Seymour on the Tenth Circuit. She is also on LinkedIn.