Five justices, including two new judges, will be sworn into the Mississippi Supreme Court on Monday.
Chief Justice Mike Randolph will give the oath of office to newly elected Justices Jenifer Branning and David Sullivan during an 11 a.m. ceremony at the Gartin Justice Building in Jackson.
Branning, a former Republican state senator from Neshoba County, defeated incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens in a close November runoff for a spot on the bench representing the central portion of the state. She used the campaign trail to categorize herself as a “constitutional conservative” running for the nonpartisan position while Kitchens attempted to remain steadfast in his reputation as a centrist judge.
Sullivan, on the other hand, knocked off Justice Dawn Beam in the state’s southern district with relative ease during the general election. The son of late Presiding Justice Michael Sullivan ran a campaign focused on his experience in three levels of the legal system. A former prosecutor, Sullivan is a Gulfport-based attorney who has served as a municipal judge in neighboring D’Iberville.
With Beam departing from the bench, Branning will now take her place as the only female justice on the nine-member high court.
Joining Branning and Sullivan in being sworn in will be Josiah D. Coleman as presiding justice – a role formerly held by Kitchens – along with Justices Jimmy Maxwell and Bobby Chamberlin. Maxwell and Chamberlin were unopposed on their way to new, eight-year terms.
