U.S. Judge Carlton Reeves of Jackson, MS; one of the Good Guys

The state of Mississippi provided Carlton Wayne Reeves with a law license in 1989 after he graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law.

During a recent (ca. April 2019) speech at the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Reeves compared Donald “Trumporleone” Trump’s attacks on the judiciary to tactics used by segregationists and lawyers for the Ku Klux Klan. (Debra Cassens Weiss)

During his speech to accept the Thomas Jefferson foundation Medal in Law, Judge Reeves made the following comments.

• “When politicians attack courts as ‘dangerous,’ ‘political’ and guilty of ‘egregious overreach,’ you can hear the Klan’s lawyers, assailing officers of the court across the South.”
• “When leaders chastise people for merely ‘using the courts,’ you can hear the Citizens Council, hammering up the names of black petitioners in Yazoo City.”
• “When the powerful accuse courts of ‘opening up our country to potential terrorists,’ you can hear the Southern Manifesto’s authors, smearing the judiciary for simply upholding the rights of black folk.”
• “When lawmakers say, ‘We should get rid of judges,’ you can hear segregationist senators, writing bills to strip courts of their power.”
• “And when the executive branch calls our courts and their work ‘stupid,’ ‘horrible,’ ‘ridiculous,’ ‘incompetent,’ ‘a laughingstock,’ and a ‘complete and total disgrace,’ you can hear the slurs and threats of executives like George Wallace, echoing into the present.”

As the late Martin Luther King Jr. would say, “The truth will set you free.”

I think that Judge Reeves’ comparison of The Great Leader to members of the KKK and/or George Wallace could result in their heirs suing him for defamation.

And lastly, kudos to Judge Reeves for having the courage and fortitude to speak the truth regarding Donald “Trumporleone” Trumps ongoing attack on the judiciary, especially any judge that fails to tow the Trumpian line.

As we speak (ca. May 2019), Judge Reeves continues to sit as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in Jackson, Mississippi.