Reeves, if confirmed by the U.S. Senate will become the first African American to chair the group which was established in 1980 to reduce disparities in sentencing and promote transparency in criminal sentencing. Reeves has presided over many important civil rights cases at federal level. He also served as a Mississippi Supreme Court clerk and chief of the civil division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson (Mississippi’s only African American member of Congress and a Democratic member) praised this week’s appointment on social media. Thompson stated that she supported Judge Carlton Reeves’ appointment to the United States Sentencing Commission. “It was a pleasure to see the first Black judge appointed chair of this commission.” Reeves, the second African American to be appointed as a Southern District judge in Mississippi. In 2010, President Barack Obama nominated him. Although the Sentencing Commission has seven members, it has not had sufficient members to function since 2019. Members of the judiciary are concerned about the inability to function because federal judges throughout the country rely on the work of the commission to establish sentencing guidelines. Three federal judges must be members of the commission. The commission can not have more than four members from the same political party. Reeves is a federal judge and has dealt with some of the most prominent cases in Mississippi. He was convicted of three young white men who brutally murdered a Black man in 2011. Reeves also issued the ruling which legalized gay marriage in Mississippi. He has heard many cases seeking to restrict abortion access in the state and is currently overseeing a challenge against the constitution of the state’s mental healthcare system.