Cory T. Wilson

Cory Todd Wilson (born August 8, 1970) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States 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.

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.

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Withdrawn nomination to district court On August 28, 2019, President Donald Trump announced his intent to nominate Wilson to serve as a United States district judge for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. 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. The Supreme Court reversed the decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Ass'n of America, Ltd. (2024), because "he statute that provides the Bureau’s funding" "authorizes expenditures from a specified source of public money for designated purposes." Justices Alito and Gorsuch dissented, disagreeing "that the Appropriations Clause is satisfied by any law that authorizes the Executive to take any amount of money from any source for any period of time for any lawful purpose."

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 Fifth Circuit concluded that the statute at issue failed Bruen'''s history-and-tradition test because, "here the [historical] surety laws imposed a conditional, partial restriction on the Second Amendment right, [the statute] works an absolute deprivation of the right, not only publicly to carry, but to possess any firearm." The Supreme Court reversed the decision in United States v. Rahimi (2024), on the general ground that "our Nation’s firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms." Justice Thomas, the author of Bruen'', dissented.