A Conversation with Judge Carlton W. Reeves

Please join the American Constitution Society at 12:10 pm on Thursday, February 13 for a lunch talk featuring Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, who will discuss his life experiences and offer his thoughts on the current state of the judiciary.

Carlton W. Reeves is a judge on the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, appointed in 2010 by President Obama. Previously, Judge Reeves worked in private practice at his own firm, Pigott Reeves Johnson, in Jackson, Mississippi, and was Assistant U.S. Attorney and Chief of the Civil Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi from 1995 to 2001. A graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, Judge Reeves clerked for Justice Reuben Anderson of the Supreme Court of Mississippi.

The second African American to serve as a federal judge in Mississippi, Judge Reeves is the author of a number of groundbreaking decisions, including Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant, which struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban, and Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Currier, which struck down a state law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In a speech last year at the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law, Judge Reeves spoke out against present-day attacks on the federal judiciary, and called for greater diversity on the federal bench. 

This event is open to members of the YLS community only.