Reeves Appoints Oxford Attorney Amanda Tollison to Mississippi Supreme Court
Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday appointed Amanda Jones Tollison of Oxford to the Mississippi Supreme Court, filling the Northern District 3, Place 2 seat left vacant by the confirmation of Justice James D. Maxwell II to the federal bench.
Tollison's term begins September 1, 2026. The governor's office said she will serve until the seat is filled by a special election. The announcement did not give a date for that election.
The seat has been vacant since December 18, 2025, when Maxwell resigned from the state Supreme Court on receiving his commission as a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The U.S. Senate confirmed him on December 9, 2025, by a vote of 51-46. Maxwell had served on the Mississippi Supreme Court since January 2016.
The appointment is the governor's second to the state's high court in three weeks. On July 27, Reeves appointed Circuit Judge Celeste Embrey Wilson of Southaven to Northern District 3, Place 1 — a vacancy created by the confirmation of Robert P. Chamberlin to the same federal court. Wilson's term began August 1. Tollison's appointment fills the second of the two seats opened by those federal elevations.
Tollison is a partner at Butler Snow LLP, where she has practiced since 2012. Her practice covers administrative law, governmental and appellate litigation, regulatory compliance and election law, according to the governor's office and the firm's published profile.
From 2008 to 2012 she served as legal counsel to Gov. Haley Barbour, advising him on legal, legislative and policy matters including judicial appointments, elections, budget issues and disaster recovery. Earlier in her career she practiced at Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP and Phelps Dunbar LLP, the governor's office said, where she worked on complex commercial and product liability litigation and white-collar criminal defense in state and federal courts.
“Amanda has distinguished herself throughout her career as an excellent attorney, respected leader in The Mississippi Bar, and dedicated public servant,” Reeves said in the announcement. “Her extensive legal experience, knowledge of Mississippi's legal system, and longstanding commitment to public service make her exceptionally qualified for the bench.”
“I am deeply grateful to Governor Reeves for this appointment and humbled by his trust in me to fulfill the duties of a justice on the Mississippi Supreme Court,” Tollison said in the same announcement. “I will faithfully uphold the Constitution and the rule of law, and I look forward to serving the people of Mississippi with integrity, fairness, and a steadfast commitment to justice.”
Tollison was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1996. She served as president of The Mississippi Bar in 2019-20, has sat on its Board of Bar Commissioners, and has served as a trustee and fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. As president of the Bar's Young Lawyers Division in 2005 she led the Disaster Legal Assistance Program, which provided pro bono legal services to Mississippians after Hurricane Katrina.
She earned her J.D. cum laude from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1996 and a B.A. in political science summa cum laude from Mississippi State University in 1992.
Northern District 3 covers 33 counties in north Mississippi and elects three of the court's nine justices.