Judge James Graves
Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
James Earl Graves, Jr. was born in 1953 in Clinton, Mississippi. He earned an undergraduate degree from Millsaps College and received an M.P.A. and a Juris Doctor from Syracuse University.
Graves served as a staff attorney at Central Mississippi Legal Services before working in private practice. He returned to public service as legal counsel in the divisions of health and of human services in the Office of the Mississippi Attorney General.
He served as Mississippi’s special assistant attorney general and a division director in the state’s Department of Human Services. He has taught at several colleges as an adjunct professor. He was appointed by the state’s governor as a Hinds County circuit court judge and later won election to that position. He was appointed to the Mississippi Supreme Court ten years later, then won election to that position.
Ho was nominated by President Barack Obama to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in June 2010. The nomination was returned and the president renominated him in January 2011. He was confirmed by the Senate and received his judicial commission in February 2011.
Graves is a Seventh-day Adventist.
In the News…
SpaceX and Amazon attorneys recently argued their case against the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) before a panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The companies sued the government agency due to complaints lodged against them about labor disputes and unionization.
Judge James Graves questioned the appeal being made before lower courts had made rulings. One of the attorneys for SpaceX claimed that the government’s lawyers were relying on procedural objections due to the weakness of their argument.
Judge Graves stated, “That sounds to me like the argument ‘procedure doesn’t matter if I win on the merits.’”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Judge Graves today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable James E. Graves, Jr.
Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
501 E Court St.
Jackson, MS 39201
