Waller practiced law with the firm of Waller and Waller in Jackson for over 20 years and served as a Municipal Judge for the City of Jackson. Waller was elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court in November 1996, for a term beginning in January 1998. He won reelection in November 2004. He served as a Presiding Justice from January 2004 until December 2008, and assumed the position of Chief Justice in January 2009. Waller has sought to bring reforms in the administration of justice. He supported adoption by the Supreme Court of
mediation rules for
civil litigation and served as chairman of the Mississippi
Public Defender Task Force from 2000 to 2005. Waller was principal architect of what became legislation that created the Office of Capital Post Conviction Counsel, the Office of Indigent Appeals and the Comprehensive Electronic Court Systems Fund. Waller served as chairman of the Supreme Court Rules Committee from 2001 to 2008. In 2012, he led efforts that resulted in the passage of judicial compensation reform legislation. In March 2018, Chief Justice Waller and Justice King dissented when the majority of the Mississippi Supreme Court found that sentencing a juvenile to
life without parole did not violate
Miller v. Alabama (2012). Waller is a member of the Stennis Institute Advisory Board at Mississippi State University. He is an Eagle Scout and serves on the advisory board of the Andrew Jackson Council, Boy Scouts of America. Justice Waller serves on the adjunct faculty of the
Mississippi College School of Law.
2019 gubernatorial candidacy Waller was a candidate for
Governor of Mississippi in the
2019 primary election. Failing to achieve 50 percent of the vote in the primary, two candidates – Waller and lieutenant governor Tate Reeves – were forced into a runoff, where Reeves won with 54 percent. ==Military career==