Three finalists named for upcoming Tennessee Supreme Court vacancy

A panel on judicial appointments named three finalists Thursday for an upcoming vacancy on the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The Governor's Council for Judicial Appointments selected Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Mary L. Wagner and Court of Criminal Appeals Judges Camille R. McMullen and J. Ross Dyer as the finalists from a pool of six applicants after holding public interviews, the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts announced.

Gov. Bill Lee will then make a nomination for the seat, subject to confirmation by the Tennessee General Assembly. The new justice will take Justice Roger A. Page's seat on the five-member court after his retirement on Aug. 31, 2024.

Under a 2014 amendment to the state Constitution, a governor makes the appointments to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which then require legislative approval. Justices then face retention elections every eight years.

This will mark Lee's third appointment to the court.

Here's more on the three finalists.

Mary L. Wagner

Wagner, 39, has served as circuit court judge for the state's 13th Judicial District, which covers Shelby County, since 2016. First appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam to fill the seat after her predecessor's retirement, Wagner was elected to the seat in 2018 and reelected four years later. She handles exclusively civil cases.

According to her application for the Supreme Court seat, Wagner has lived in Tennessee her whole life, aside from attending the University of Colorado at Boulder from 2003-2006, where she studied political science. She earned her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, where she graduated fourth in her class.

Before becoming a judge, Wagner worked at Memphis firm Rice, Amundsen and Caperton, where she mainly handled family law, personal injury and commercial disputes, according to her application.

Wagner is a member of the Memphis chapter of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization. She received the Chancellor Charles A. Round Memorial Award for Outstanding Judge of the Year from the Young Lawyers' Division of the Memphis Bar Association in 2019.

Camille R. McMullen

McMullen, 52, was appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in 2008. In June 2023, the court elected McMullen as its presiding judge, making her the first woman and first African-American to lead the 12-member court.

McMullen earned her law degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1996 after attending Austin Peay State University from 1989-1993, where she studied political science and was elected student government president in her senior year.

Prior to becoming a judge, McMullen was a prosecutor at the state and federal level for 11 years. While an assistant district attorney in Memphis, McMullen was the lead prosecutor in the 1999-2000 high-profile cases involving the deaths of two children at daycare centers in Memphis, according to her application. McMullen prosecuted white collar, firearms, drug, economic and fraud related crimes while working for seven years as an assistant U.S. attorney in Memphis.

J. Ross Dyer

Dyer, 51, has once before been tapped to fill a seat left by Page, the Supreme Court justice retiring in August. Haslam appointed Dyer to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in 2016 after Page was selected for the state's highest court.

Dyer earned his law degree from Samford University's Cumberland School of Law in 1998 after graduating from Millsaps College in 1995 with a degree in business administration.

After graduating from law school, Dyer worked with the Tennessee Attorney General's Office representing the state in criminal appeals. In 2004, he was named the manager of the Memphis office of the Attorney General's Office, which he held in 2014.

From 2014-2016, Dyer served as the county attorney for Shelby County.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Supreme Court: Three finalists named for upcoming vacancy