James Lamar Roberts Jr. (born June 8, 1945) [1] is an American retired jurist who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1992 to 1999. [2]
Born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, Roberts received a J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1971, [3] and served as the prosecuting attorney for Pontotoc County, Mississippi from 1972 to 1983. In 1984, Governor Bill Allain appointed him State Commissioner of Public Safety, a position he held for four years. [4]
Roberts became a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi in 1992. [5] In April 1999, Roberts resigned form his seat on the Supreme Court to campaign for the office of governor in that year's election. [4] He sought the Democratic nomination, facing Lieutenant Governor Ronnie Musgrove. [6] Roberts did little to build a gubernatorial platform and spent most of his time attacking Musgrove for his use of state vehicles for campaign activities. [7] Musgrove won the August 3 Democratic primary, taking 57 percent of the vote to Roberts' 26 percent. [8]
In January 2019, Roberts suffered a stroke. He tendered his resignation from his circuit court judgeship effective February 29, 2020. [4]
David Ronald Musgrove is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 62nd governor of Mississippi from 2000 to 2004. A Democrat, he previously served as the 29th lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 1996 to 2000. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2008 special election for one of Mississippi's seats in the United States Senate, losing to incumbent Senator Roger Wicker. Musgrove is a principal at a public affairs consulting firm, Politics. In 2014, he became founding partner of a new law firm in Jackson, Mississippi, Musgrove/Smith Law. As of 2023, he is the last Democrat to hold the office of Governor of Mississippi.
Daniel Kirkwood "Kirk" Fordice Jr. was an American politician and businessman who served as the 61st governor of Mississippi from 1992 to 2000. He was the first Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction, and the state's first governor elected to two consecutive four-year terms.
Arthur MacArthur Sr. was a Scottish-American immigrant, lawyer, and judge. He was the fourth Governor of Wisconsin and was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. He was the father of General Arthur MacArthur Jr., and paternal grandfather of General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur is the modern spelling used by his descendants, but in documents from his own time his name was spelled McArthur.
James Plemon Coleman was an American judge, the 52nd governor of Mississippi and a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
A general election was held in Mississippi on November 4, 2003, to elect to 4 year terms all members of the state legislature, the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, State Auditor, Secretary of State, Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, and Commissioner of Insurance, plus all three members of the Transportation Commission and all three members of the Public Service Commission.
The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Each justice is elected in partisan elections for staggered six-year terms. The Supreme Court is housed in the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in downtown Montgomery, Alabama.
James Earl Graves Jr. is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Perry Oliver Hooper Sr. was an American jurist who served as the 27th chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court from 1995 to 2001. He was the first Republican since Reconstruction to have been elected to his state's highest court.
Dewey Phillip Bryant is an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 31st lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2008 to 2012 and 40th state auditor of Mississippi from 1996 to 2008. Bryant was elected governor in 2011, defeating the Democratic nominee Mayor Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg. He was re-elected in 2015, defeating Democratic nominee Robert Gray.
The 2008 United States Senate special election in Mississippi was held on November 4, 2008. This election was held on the same day of Thad Cochran's re-election bid in the regularly scheduled Class II election. The winner of this special election served the rest of the Senate term, which ended in January 2013. Unlike most Senate elections, this was a non-partisan election in which the candidate who got a majority of the vote won, and if the first-place candidate did not get 50%, a runoff election with the top two candidates would have been held. In the election, no run-off was necessary as Republican nominee and incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker won election to finish the term.
Samuel James Ervin IV is a North Carolina lawyer and jurist who served on the North Carolina Supreme Court from 2015 to 2022. He previously served as a state Utilities Commissioner and as a judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He is the grandson of U.S. Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr. and the son of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Judge Sam J. Ervin III.
Oliver E. Diaz Jr. is a former Presiding Justice on the Supreme Court of Mississippi representing District 2 Place 2. In 2008, he was defeated by Randy "Bubba" Pierce.
The Government of Mississippi is the government of the U.S. state of Mississippi. Power in Mississippi's government is distributed by the state's Constitution between the executive and legislative branches. The state's current governor is Tate Reeves. The Mississippi Legislature consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Mississippi is one of only five states that elects its state officials in odd numbered years. Mississippi holds elections for these offices every four years in the years preceding Presidential election years. Thus, the last year when Mississippi elected a Governor was 2019, and the next gubernatorial election will occur in 2023.
The University of Mississippi School of Law, also known as Ole Miss Law, is an ABA-accredited law school located on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. The School of Law offers the only dedicated aerospace law curriculum in the United States from an ABA-accredited school. The University of Mississippi School of Law is also the only school in the United States, and one of only a handful in the world, to offer a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Air and Space Law.
Four justices of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and four judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 4, 2014, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Mississippi since June 26, 2015. On November 25, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled that Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Enforcement of his ruling was stayed pending appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples violates the U.S. Constitution. On June 29, Attorney General Jim Hood ordered clerks to comply with the court ruling and issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The Fifth Circuit lifted its stay on July 1, and Judge Reeves ordered an end to Mississippi's enforcement of its same-sex marriage ban. However, until July 2, 2015, several counties in Mississippi continued to refuse to issue marriage licenses, including DeSoto, Jasper, Jones, Newton, Pontotoc, Simpson and Yalobusha.
One justice of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and five judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 8, 2016, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years.
Sydney McCain Smith was a justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi from 1909 to 1948, and its chief justice starting in 1912. His 39-year tenure made him "by far the longest-serving Mississippi Supreme Court justice".
Three justices of the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court and five judges of the 15-member North Carolina Court of Appeals were elected by North Carolina voters on November 3, 2020, concurrently with other state elections. Terms for seats on each court are eight years. These elections were conducted on a partisan basis.