Governor’s Weekly Message Transcript: Recognizing Delaware’s Judicial Selection Process


Several weeks ago, I nominated to the Senate for confirmation the names of several Delawareans to serve as judges in our state.  Whether it’s the Supreme Court, the Superior Court or the Chancery Court, the Family Court or the Court of Common Pleas – who we have as judges says a lot about who we are as a people because justice is at the very core of who we are as Americans.

We have an excellent system in Delaware for selecting judges.  You know, in some states people actually run for office to become a judge.  We don’t think that’s a very good system. So what we have here in Delaware instead – lawyers who want to become judges apply to the judicial nominating commission.

That commission reviews the application, interviews the candidates and then sends to me a number of candidates for each slot.  I then also interview the candidates and then send the names onto the State Senate where they’re either confirmed or not confirmed.  It’s a very good system and we know that even as we’re focusing on putting people back to work in Delaware, improving our schools and all the other things that we do, having a great justice system is critical to having Delaware move forward.