LEGAL/RACISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/VIRGINIA: “Mississippi federal Judge Carlton Reeves in a speech in Virginia assailed the Trump administration for lack of diversity in judicial appointments and likened President Trump’s attacks on the judiciary to tactics used by the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists in the Jim Crow era. Reeves, who has ruled on some of the state’s biggest legal cases, spoke Thursday [4-11-19] at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he accepted this year’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law award from his alma mater. BuzzFeed News reports Reeves, an African American, quoted President Donald Trump’s tweets and public comments about judges and the courts (the written version obtained by BuzzFeed includes footnotes making clear Reeves is referring to Trump tweets) and blasted the lack of diversity among Trump’s judicial nominees…Reeves has ruled on some of the state’s high-profile cases including in November when he struck down a Mississippi law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. In addition to the abortion ruling, Reeves in 2016 blocked House Bill 1523 from going into effect during an appeal. The law protects religious objections to same-sex marriage.”
–Jimmie E. Gates, “Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves likens Trump attack on judiciary to KKK tactics,” USA Today, April 12, 2019 5:58 pm