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Cory T. Wilson
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Incumbent
Assumed office July 3, 2020
Appointed by	Donald Trump
Preceded by	E. Grady Jolly
Judge of the Mississippi Court of Appeals
In office February 15, 2019 – July 3, 2020
Appointed by	Phil Bryant
Preceded by	Kenny Griffis
Succeeded by	John H. Emfinger
Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from the 73rd district
In office January 5, 2016 – February 14, 2019
Preceded by	Brad Oberhousen
Succeeded by	Jill Ford
Personal details
Born	(1970-08-08) August 8, 1970 (age 54) Pascagoula, Mississippi, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Education	University of Mississippi (BBA) Yale University (JD)

Cory Todd Wilson (born August 8, 1970) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020. A member of the Republican Party, Wilson was previously a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals and a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Early life and education

Wilson was born in 1970 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1992 with a Bachelor of Business Administration, summa cum laude, and also received the Taylor Medal in Economics, awarded to the top student in the department. He then attended Yale Law School, where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal and an Olin Fellow in Economics. He graduated in 1995 with a Juris Doctor.

Legal and legislative career

Upon graduation from law school, Wilson served as a law clerk to Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also served as a White House Fellow in the Department of Defense as a Special Assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Before serving in the Mississippi legislature, Wilson served as Senior Advisor and Counsel in the Mississippi State Treasurer's Office and as Deputy Secretary of State in the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office.

Wilson has been an intermittent member of the Federalist Society, including while at Yale Law School from 1992 to 1995, and then joining the Mississippi chapter from 1996 to 2005 and again since 2019.

Mississippi House of Representatives

Wilson served as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives from 2016 to 2019.

Judicial career

State judicial service

In December 2018, Wilson was appointed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals to the seat vacated by Kenny Griffis, who was elevated to the Mississippi Supreme Court. He was sworn into office on February 15, 2019. His service as a state judge ended on July 2, 2020, when he was elevated as a Circuit Judge to the Fifth Circuit Court.

Federal judicial service

Withdrawn nomination to district court

On August 28, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Wilson to serve as a United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. On October 15, his nomination was sent to the Senate. President Trump nominated Wilson to the seat vacated by Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who assumed senior status on March 23, 2018. On January 3, 2020, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate. On January 6, 2020, his renomination was sent to the Senate. On January 8, 2020, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on his nomination. During his confirmation hearing, some senators asked about Wilson's past comments on social media about President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as his previous positions, as a state legislator, on abortion, LGBT rights, the Affordable Care Act, and voting rights. His district-court nomination—which stalled as the first impeachment trial of President Trump was consuming the Senate and as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning—was withdrawn on May 4, 2020, when he was nominated to the Fifth Circuit.

Court of appeals service

On March 30, 2020, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Wilson to serve as a United States circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, to fill the seat vacated by Judge E. Grady Jolly, who assumed senior status on October 3, 2017. On May 4, 2020, his nomination was sent to the Senate. On May 18, 2020, the American Bar Association rated Wilson as "well qualified," its highest rating. On May 20, 2020, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wilson's nomination. On June 11, 2020, Wilson's nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On June 22, 2020, the Senate invoked cloture on Wilson's nomination by a 51–43 vote. On June 24, 2020, Wilson's nomination was confirmed by a 52–48 vote. Wilson's confirmation marked the 200th confirmation of a federal judge nominated by Donald Trump. Wilson was the sixth judge nominated by Trump to be confirmed to the Fifth Circuit. Wilson received his judicial commission on July 3, 2020.

In October 2022, with Wilson writing for a unanimous panel, the Fifth Circuit held that "Congress’s cession of its power of the purse to the Bureau violates the Appropriations Clause and the Constitution’s underlying structural separation of powers." The Supreme Court reversed the decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Ass'n of America, Ltd. (2024).

In February 2023, with Wilson again writing for a unanimous panel, the Fifth Circuit held that—though the federal statute that prohibits the possession of firearms by people subject to domestic-violence restraining orders (after civil, rather than criminal, proceedings) "embodies salutary policy goals meant to protect vulnerable people in our society"—the statute is unconstitutional in light of the Supreme Court's decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. The Supreme Court reversed the decision in United States v. Rahimi (2024).

In March 2024, with Wilson writing for a panel unanimous in the judgment, the Fifth Circuit held that “the EPA exceeded its statutory authority” in ordering a company “that has been fluorinating plastic containers using the same process since 1983” to stop manufacturing or processing long-chain perfluoroalkyls (PFAS), potentially dangerous chemicals that some call “forever chemicals.” Wilson explained that the court’s ruling did “not render the EPA powerless to regulate ’s fluorination process,” but merely prevented the agency from “skirt the framework set by Congress by arbitrarily deeming ’s decades-old fluorination process a ‘significant new use.’”

See also

• Donald Trump judicial appointment controversies

References

1. "Our Campaigns – MS State House 073 Race – Nov 03, 2015".
2. "Our Campaigns – Candidate – Cory T. Wilson".
3. ^ "Who is Cory Wilson?". National Review. March 31, 2020. Archived from the original on September 25, 2022. Retrieved September 25, 2022.
4. ^ "President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal Nominee". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via National Archives.
5. "United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary: Questionnaire for Judicial Nominees: Cory Wilson" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
6. "Cory T. Wilson appointed to Mississippi Court of Appeals". WTVA News. December 19, 2018. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
7. "Court of Appeals Judge Cory Wilson to take oath Feb. 15". courts.ms.gov. State of Mississippi Judiciary. Archived from the original on August 29, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2019.
8. ^ Cory T. Wilson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
9. "Twenty-five Nominations and Three Withdrawals Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via National Archives.
10. "PN1176 – Nomination of Cory T. Wilson for The Judiciary, 116th Congress (2019–2020)". www.congress.gov. January 3, 2020. Archived from the original on January 1, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
11. "Twenty-one Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via National Archives.
12. "Nominations | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". www.judiciary.senate.gov. January 8, 2020. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
13. "Judge Pick Would Ax Tweets on Clinton, Obama, if Confirmed (1)". news.bloomberglaw.com. January 8, 2020. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
14. Ryan, Tim (January 8, 2020). "Mississippi Judicial Pick Grilled Over Record as Lawmaker". Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
15. Nazaryan, Alexander (February 12, 2020). "Trump is elevating judges who could gut the Voting Rights Act". news.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved February 24, 2020.
16. "Meet the Fifth Circuit's New Judge, The Mississippi Lawyer, Fall 2021". Archived from the original on July 3, 2022. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
17. "Thirty Nominations and One Withdrawal Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2021 – via National Archives.
18. "Ratings of Article III and Article IV Judicial Nominees" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 1, 2021.
19. Record, Wilson Responses to Questions for the (May 20, 2020). "Nominations | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". www.judiciary.senate.gov. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
20. Daly, Matthew; Press, Associated (June 11, 2020). "Senate panel advances Mississippi appeals court nominee". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
21. "Results of Executive Business Meeting – June 11, 2020, Senate Judiciary Committee" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 23, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
22. "On the Cloture Motion (Motion to Invoke Cloture: Cory T. Wilson to be United States Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit)". United States Senate. June 22, 2020. Archived from the original on October 10, 2022. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
23. "On the Nomination (Confirmation: Cory T. Wilson, of Mississippi to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit)". United States Senate. June 24, 2020. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
24. "Trump's 200th Judge Will Mean Decades of Fighting for Our Rights". Rewire.News. June 24, 2020. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
25. Hulse, Carl (June 24, 2020). "With Wilson Confirmation, Trump and Senate Republicans Achieve a Milestone". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. Retrieved June 24, 2020.
26. "Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited; Consumer Service Alliance of Texas versus Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; Rohit Chopra" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 30, 2023. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
27. "United States of America versus Zackey Rahimi" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 19, 2023. Retrieved June 30, 2023.
28. "Inhance Technologies v. EPA" (PDF).

External links

• Cory T. Wilson at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Cory Wilson at Ballotpedia

• 1970 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American lawyers
• 21st-century American lawyers
• 21st-century American judges
• 21st-century members of the Mississippi Legislature
• Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• Republican Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives
• Mississippi College School of Law faculty
• Mississippi Court of Appeals judges
• Mississippi lawyers
• People from Pascagoula, Mississippi
• United States court of appeals judges appointed by Donald Trump
• University of Mississippi alumni
• White House Fellows
• Yale Law School alumni