By The Associated Press
DOVER, Del. (AP) — The newest member of Delaware’s Supreme Court is also the first Black justice in the history of the state’s highest court.
Delaware State News reported Monday that Tamika Montgomery-Reeves is also believed to be the youngest member of the Supreme Court since it was officially established in 1951.
Delaware Governor John Carney (left) and Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Collins J. Seitz, Jr. (center) pose with Justice Tamika Montongomery-Reeves (right). (Image courtesy Delaware state government)
Montgomery-Reeves is a native of Mississippi who attended law school in Georgia and now lives in Wilmington.
She clerked for William B. Chandler III, head of Delaware’s highly influential Court of Chancery, which handles many of the nation’s business-related cases.
She started her career in New York and worked on cases stemming from the financial crisis of the late 2000s. Then she came to Wilmington law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
In 2015, Gov. Jack Markell picked her to fill a vacant seat on the Court of Chancery.
When Gov. John Carney chose her for the state Supreme Court late last year, he said she was chosen for her qualifications, not her race, He praised her “experience and sense of justice.”
A formal investiture for Montgomery-Reeves is scheduled for Friday.