Cory Wilson

Cory Wilson is a Trump-appointed Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. As part of the “rogue and lawless” Fifth Circuit, Wilson has authored several opinions that have been rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. In one, Wilson ruled that the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), is unconstitutional because it is funded independently, as opposed to by annual appropriations from Congress. Contradicting Supreme Court precedent, Wilson’s decree called into question a host of other regulatory agencies, including the Federal Reserve and even the legality of long-standing government programs like Social Security, risking our economic stability. The Court rejected Wilson’s approach, with only Justices Alito and Gorsuch dissenting.

In another rejected opinion, Wilson ruled that a Texas law prohibiting a person with a domestic violence restraining order against them from owning a firearm was unconstitutional. Relying on Clarence Thomas’ invented test for whether a gun regulation is unconstitutional by requiring a historical analogue, Wilson struck down that restriction as inconsistent with gun regulations at the time of the founding, and claimed that the Texas law barring gun ownership by a person with a protective order against them “is an ‘outlier[] that our ancestors would never have accepted.’”

During his nomination process, Wilson was questioned by senators for claims he made disparaging Democratic officials. Wilson’s claims include labeling Obama “a fit-throwing teenager,” “a radical leftist,” “petty and small,” “shrill dishonest, and intellectually bankrupt,” and “King Barack,” and asserting that he ran the “most paranoid and politicized White House since Nixon’s.” Wilson also repeatedly used the #CrookedHilary hashtag, called the agenda of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a “claptrap,” and accused the media of giving “Democrats [] a free pass; [while] Republicans get ‘accountability’; Tea Partiers get mocked….” He also claimed the press “actively rigg[ed] the 2012 election.”

Wilson has used his judicial role to impose his personal views. For example, in an NRA questionnaire Wilson filled out when running for office in Mississippi, he expressed opposition to “any further restrictive state laws regarding firearms” and urged less stringent gun safety regulations in Mississippi, even though it already has some of the most lenient gun laws in the nation. During his legislative tenure, he also backed measures to permit concealed carry on all public properties and supported allowing people to carry firearms into places of worship.

Wilson also criticized the ACA as “illegitimate” and “perverse” due to its passage without Republican support. He also referred to the ACA as an example of “big intrusive government” and the “liberal-utopia-dictated healthcare,” claiming “Obamacare is less about healthcare than it is about redistribution of wealth and power.” Wilson has long opposed Medicaid expansion in the state, referring to it as “an expansion of the welfare state.” He complained that the expansion would mean 1 in 3 Mississippians would be eligible for coverage (the percent of residents below 138% of the poverty line), dismissing the needs of the roughly 100,000 uninsured residents of his state as of 2019. In 2022, Mississippi had the seventh highest uninsured rate at 13.1 percent, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

While running for a Mississippi House seat in 2007, Wilson filled out a candidate questionnaire from the Mississippi Right to Life, where he pledged his support for the complete and immediate reversal of Roe v. Wade and agreed that stem cell research meant “the killing of human embryos.” In his opposition to marriage equality, Wilson claimed that “gay marriage is a pander to liberal interest groups and an attempt to cast Republicans as intolerant, uncaring and even bigoted.” He also accused the media of “merely pay[ing] lip service to the conviction held by many that homosexual marriage is wrong.” He also warned that “private citizens who dare oppose marriage ‘equality’… will now be bashed, banned, and bankrupted, simply for expressing their views.” Wilson also supported legislation allowing businesses to deny services to LGBTQ+ individuals and those engaging in sexual relationships outside of marriage. Although a district court judge enjoined that law, calling it “a vehicle for state-sanctioned discrimination,” the Fifth Circuit reversed the injunction.

As Deputy Secretary of State and Chief of Staff, state positions he held from 2008 to 2011, Wilson’s office sponsored voter ID restrictions. He also wrote a series of op-eds about voting issues. Despite Mississippi’s well-documented history of voter suppression, memorialized in the dramatized film “Mississippi Burning,” Wilson criticized the Department of Justice for deploying election observers. He also suggested that any DOJ effort not examine voter suppression but instead combat “voter fraud,” a rare occurrence often used as a dog whistle to justify restrictive voting laws that adversely affect people of color and tribal communities. He also argued for the effectiveness of voter ID laws and dismissed concerns raised by civil rights groups as baseless. He further disparaged organizations such as the ACLU, labeling them as “rent-a-mobs,” and criticized then-Attorney General for “whin[ing], like many liberals, that voter ID laws are part of an illegitimate, orchestrated effort by Republicans to suppress poor and minority voting.”