Jess Zalph is a Constitutional Litigation Fellow at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Before joining Americans United, Jess was the Douglas T. Kendall Fellow at the Constitutional Accountability Center. She received her J.D. cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. At Penn, Jess was a Levy Scholar and Comments Editor for the Journal of Constitutional Law. Her student comment—on evaluation of substantial burden in free exercise cases—was published in that journal in 2023. In addition, Jess spent a semester as the full-time legal intern for NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg, and another semester in Penn’s Legislative Clinic, working for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jess was also Executive Director of Penn’s Youth Education Project, which provides civics education and organizes moot court competitions for Philadelphia public high school students.
Jess received her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University, with High Honors in Government, and a master’s in history from Brown University. She also taught high school history for three years. Jess is a perennially amateur glassblower, and is spending her free time this year trying to make a dent in The Power Broker.
