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Jesse has represented journalists facing First Amendment violations, influencers subjected to defamation campaigns, parents targeted by school boards, political figures facing lawfare, detransitioners fighting for justice, and individuals across the country whose rights and reputations are at risk. He has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star each year since 2023.

In addition to his litigation practice, Jesse is an active participant in the political world. Jesse has been a delegate to the Republican National Convention and the California Republican Party. In the 2024 election, he helped manage election integrity and election day operations in Arizona before assisting the Republican Party’s efforts to maintain its victory in Pennsylvania’s senate race. He represents national, state, and county-level Republican political committees, and is the California Young Republican Federation’s General Counsel.

Jesse stays up to date on the most important legal controversies of the day by writing opinion pieces as the Center for American Liberty’s Miles Visiting Fellow. His articles have appeared in the Daily Wire, the Federalist, the Hill, and the Daily Caller.

Prior to co-founding Sweigart Murdock, LLP, Jesse was counsel at Dhillon Law Group Inc., where he focused on political law, defamation, and civil rights. Jesse was also a law clerk to the Honorable Jill A. Otake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. In 2017, Jesse graduated summa cum laude from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he was an Outside Articles Editor on the University of Hawaii Law Review, received two merit scholarships, and won five awards for receiving top grades. He was an extern to Senior Judge Richard R. Clifton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Senior Judge J. Michael Seabright of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii.

Jesse’s wins include a successful motion to dismiss a civil rights lawsuit filed by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman against family members and associates of President Donald J. Trump involving allegations relating to the 2020 presidential impeachment trial; serving on the trial team for an attorney who defeated a State Bar disciplinary charge on First Amendment grounds; defeating a four-count complaint on an anti-SLAPP motion following a full-day evidentiary hearing leading to a settlement for attorneys’ fees paid by the plaintiff; settling a First Amendment retaliation claim against a school board, its president, and his father for $200,000; winning summary judgment in an arbitration involving an alleged breach of a stock purchase agreement brought by a former employee of a technology company; winning multiple anti-SLAPP motions leading to the award of attorneys’ fees; and securing published corrections from newspapers including the Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jesse is admitted to practice law in the Supreme Court of the United States; the Supreme Courts of California and Hawaii; the United States Court of Appeals for the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth, and D.C. Circuits, and all federal district courts in California, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. Jesse has been admitted pro hac vice in courts in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska, New Jersey, and New York.

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JESSE D. FRANKLIN-MURDOCK