Magistrate Judge

NOTICE FOR APPOINTMENT OF MAGISTRATE JUDGE 

Due to the planned retirement of Magistrate Judge Michael T. Parker on November 2, 2026, and with the approval of both the Fifth Circuit Judicial Council and the Committee on the  Administration of the Magistrate Judges System of the Judicial Conference of the United States to fill  the vacancy, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi is receiving  applications for the position of Magistrate Judge assigned to the District’s Eastern Division in  Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The duty station for this position is the William M. Colmer Federal Building  and United States Courthouse in Hattiesburg, and the successful candidate must reside in, or relocate  to, the Hattiesburg metropolitan area. The appointment will be effective upon the successful  candidate’s acceptable completion of the required FBI background investigation but no earlier than  November 3, 2026. 

The duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging. The magistrate judge conducts  most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; conducts trials and dispositions of misdemeanor cases;  conducts various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge;  conducts settlement conferences; and conducts trials of civil cases upon consent of the litigants. The  basic authority of a United States Magistrate Judge is specified in 28 U.S.C. §636. 

To be qualified for appointment an applicant must 

(1) Be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest  court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of  Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United  States; 

(2) Have been engaged in the active practice of law for a period of at least 5 years (with some  substitutes authorized); 

(3) Be competent to perform all duties of the office; be of good moral character; be emotionally  stable and mature; be committed to equal justice under the law; be in good health; be patient  and courteous; and be capable of deliberation and decisiveness; 

(4) Be less than seventy years old; and  

(5) Not be related to a judge of the district court.

A merit selection panel composed of attorneys and other members of the community will  review all applicants and recommend to the district judges in confidence the five persons it considers  best qualified. The court will make the appointment following an FBI full-field investigation and an IRS  tax check of the applicant selected by the court for appointment. An affirmative effort will be made to  give due consideration to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, age (40 and over),  gender, religion, national origin or disability. The individual selected must comply with the financial  disclosure requirements pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-521, 90 Stat.  1824 (1978) (codified at 5 U.S.C. app. §§ 101-111) (Guide, Vol. 3, Ch. 4, § 420.20.20(c)). The current  annual salary of the position is $227,608. The term of office is eight years from the effective date of  November 3, 2026.  

The application form is available for download on court’s Internet website at  Https://www.mssd.uscourts.gov/sites/mssd/files/MagApp.docx. Application forms may also be  obtained from the Clerk of the District Court Arthur Johnston by contacting his assistant, Tonia Carruth  at 601-608-4010. Applications must be submitted by applicants personally (i.e., you cannot apply on  behalf of another person) and must be received by February 13, 2026. The application form itself  explains how applications must be submitted. 

All applications will be kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all  applications will be examined only by members of the merit selection panel, the Clerk of Court, and the  judges of the district court. The panel’s deliberations will remain confidential.