President Biden nominated Montgomery-Reeves as a candidate to join the Philadelphia-based Third Circuit Court of Appeals last week.
She would replace Judge Thomas Ambro, a Clinton appointee who announced last year plans to take senior status – a part-time position given to long-serving federal judges. Like Montgomery-Reeves, Ambro began his career in Delaware.
Montgomery-Reeves joined the Delaware Supreme Court as an associate Justice in January 2020, before which she spent four years as Vice Chancellor on Delaware’s Court of Chancery. She has also worked in private practice in Wilmington and pro-bono for the Prisoners’ Rights Project.
Montgomery-Reeves was the first African American woman to serve on Chancery Court and the first African American justice on the state Supreme Court. Nationally, she was the third African American woman to serve on a state Supreme Court.
She now awaits a confirmation vote in the US Senate.
Biden previously committed to improving diversity on federal court benches, but some nominees have faced hurdles: US Senate lawmakers deadlocked over Biden’s nomination of Arianna Freeman, a former public defender, for another Third Circuit Court of Appeals seat. Montgomery-Reeves likewise now awaits confirmation in the US Senate.
Filling a seat on Delaware’s Supreme Court involves an application and nomination process intended to produce at least three finalists within 60 days of the vacancy opening on the court. Gov. John Carney will then pick his nominee, who needs approval from the state Senate.
