See All Judicial Nominees
James Donald Maxwell
Confirmed Trump 2.0
Confirmed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.
On August 12, 2025, President Trump nominated James Donald Maxwell to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. He was confirmed on December 9, 2025.
Biography
James Donald Maxwell earned his B.B.A from the University of Mississippi in 1997 and his J.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2001.
Legal Experience
Before entering the legal profession, Justice James Donald Maxwell worked as a clerk assistant with the City of Kenner Clerk of the Court (1997) and as a sales consultant with Physician Sales and Services (1997–1998).
During law school, he clerked with the Mississippi Office of the Attorney General (1999), Daniel Coker Horton & Bell, P.A. (2000), and Lemle & Kelleher LLP (2000). After graduation, he joined Daniel Coker Horton & Bell, P.A. as an associate (2001–2002).
From 2002 to 2009, Maxwell served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Mississippi. He was then appointed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, where he served from 2009 to 2015.
In 2016, he was elevated to the Mississippi Supreme Court as an Associate Justice, a position he continues to hold today.
Key Facts
Justice James Donald Maxwell was appointed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2009 by Governor Haley Barbour and to the Mississippi Supreme Court in 2016 by Governor Phil Bryant.
On the Court, he has authored opinions that include upholding a 12-year sentence in 2020 for Willie Nash, an African American man charged with possessing a cell phone in jail despite officials failing to confiscate it during booking; writing the 2023 majority opinion in Saunders v. Mississippi, which created a new court system in Jackson; and ruling in 2025 that a transgender 16-year-old could not change his legal name, referring to him as a “minor female.”
Earlier, on the Court of Appeals, Maxwell authored the 2014 opinion in Bates v. State, applying enhanced penalties for assaulting a law enforcement officer to a defendant who shot at an off-duty deputy.