Cory Todd Wilson

Cory Todd Wilson is an American jurist who has served as a United States circuit judge on the Fifth Circuit since 2020. Appointed by President Donald Trump, he previously held positions in Mississippi’s legislative and judicial branches, including a term on the state Court of Appeals. His career spans private practice, federal clerkship, executive‑branch service, and academic involvement with the Federalist Society.

Early life and legal career

Born in 1970 in Pascagoula, Mississippi, Wilson pursued higher education at the University of Mississippi, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in 1992. He graduated summa cum laude and received the Taylor Medal in Economics, an award given to the top student in the department. Continuing his studies, Wilson attended Yale Law School, graduating with a Juris Doctor in 1995. While at Yale, he contributed to the Yale Law Journal and was selected as an Olin Fellow in Economics.

Following law school, Wilson clerked for Judge Emmett Ripley Cox of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, gaining experience in federal appellate practice. He subsequently served as a White House Fellow within the Department of Defense, acting as Special Assistant to Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Returning to Mississippi, Wilson held senior advisory and counsel positions in the State Treasurer’s Office and later served as Deputy Secretary of State in the Secretary of State’s Office.

Wilson’s involvement with the Federalist Society began during his law‑school years (1992‑1995) and continued through a period of membership in the Mississippi chapter from 1996 to 2005, resuming again in 2019. His engagement with the organization reflects an ongoing interest in legal scholarship and conservative jurisprudence.

In 2016, Wilson entered elected office as a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served until 2019. During his legislative tenure, he participated in state policymaking and contributed to the development of statutory law. After leaving the legislature, Governor Phil Bryant appointed him to the Mississippi Court of Appeals in December 2018 to fill the vacancy created by Kenny Griffis’s elevation to the state Supreme Court. Wilson was sworn into that judicial role on February 15, 2019, and served until his federal appointment later that year.

Federal appellate service

President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Wilson to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on August 28, 2019. The nomination, submitted to the Senate on October 15, sought to fill the seat vacated by Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had taken senior status in March 2018. After procedural return of the nomination under Senate rules on January 3, 2020, Wilson was renominated on January 6, 2020, and a Judiciary Committee hearing took place on January 8. During that hearing, senators questioned him about prior public statements concerning political figures and his positions on issues such as abortion, LGBTQ rights, the Affordable Care Act, and voting‑rights legislation. The district‑court nomination did not advance further, in part because Senate business was dominated by the first impeachment trial of President Trump and emerging concerns related to the COVID‑19 pandemic. On May 4, 2020, the administration withdrew the district‑court nomination as Wilson’s focus shifted to a circuit‑court appointment.

The same day that his district‑court bid was withdrawn, President Trump announced Wilson’s candidacy for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, intending to fill the seat left vacant when Judge E. Grady Jolly assumed senior status in October 2017. The formal nomination reached the Senate on May 4, 2020. The American Bar Association evaluated Wilson as “well qualified,” its highest rating, on May 18. A Judiciary Committee hearing was held on May 20, and the committee reported his nomination favorably by a 12–10 vote on June 11. The full Senate invoked cloture on his nomination with a 51–43 vote on June 22 and confirmed him by a 52–48 margin on June 24. Wilson’s confirmation marked the two‑hundredth federal judicial appointment made by President Trump and represented the sixth Trump nominee to join the Fifth Circuit. He received his commission on July 3, 2020, and has served as an active circuit judge since that time.

Jurisprudence and legacy

During his tenure on the Fifth Circuit, Judge Wilson has authored opinions in cases that have attracted attention for their constitutional analysis. In October 2022, he wrote a unanimous opinion holding that Congress’s delegation of its appropriations authority to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) violated the Appropriations Clause and the Constitution’s structural separation of powers. The Supreme Court later reversed this decision in *Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Ltd.* (2024), concluding that the statutory funding mechanism for the CFPB satisfied the Appropriations Clause because it authorized expenditures from a specific source for designated purposes. Justices Alito and Gorsuch dissented from the majority opinion in the Supreme Court case, disagreeing with the view that any law permitting executive spending without tighter constraints fulfills the clause.

In February 2023, Wilson again authored a unanimous panel decision addressing a federal statute that prohibited individuals subject to domestic‑violence restraining orders—issued through civil proceedings—from possessing firearms. While acknowledging the policy objectives underlying the statute, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the provision was unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s *Bruen* test, which requires contemporary gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The court found that the statute imposed an absolute ban on possession rather than a conditional restriction historically recognized, and therefore failed the history‑and‑tradition analysis. This ruling was subsequently reversed by the Supreme Court.

These cases illustrate Wilson’s engagement with complex constitutional questions involving separation of powers and the Second Amendment. His opinions have contributed to ongoing dialogues within the federal judiciary about the scope of congressional authority and the historical foundations of gun rights, even as higher courts have sometimes taken a different view. As an active member of the Fifth Circuit, Judge Wilson continues to participate in the appellate adjudication of a broad array of legal issues affecting the southeastern United States.

Through his combined experience in legislative service, state judiciary, and federal appellate work, Wilson’s career reflects a trajectory that bridges multiple branches of government. His educational background in economics and law, coupled with early exposure to both executive‑branch policy formation and federal judicial processes, informs his approach to interpreting statutes and constitutional provisions. While the ultimate impact of his jurisprudence will be measured over time by subsequent case law and scholarly assessment, Wilson’s contributions to the Fifth Circuit have already become part of the circuit’s developing body of precedent.