Thirty-year Supreme Court Justice Randy Holland has informed Gov. John Carney and his colleagues that he will retire at the end of March.
Prior to his appointment and confirmation in 1986, Holland was in private practice as a partner at Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell.
The youngest person confirmed for a post on the high court, in 2009, he became the longest-serving justice in the history of Delaware. In March 2011, he was reappointed by Governor Markell and unanimously confirmed by the Senate for an unprecedented third 12-year term.
Holland graduated from Swarthmore College. He also graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, cum laude, where he received the Loughlin Award for legal ethics. Justice Holland received a Master of Laws in the Judicial Process from the University of Virginia Law School. He was awarded honorary Doctor of Law degrees by the Delaware Law School and Swarthmore College.
Throughout his threee decades on the bench, Holland has written more than 700 reported opinions and several thousand case dispositive orders.
Holland is recognized as an expert on state constitutional law. He has published two books on the Delaware Constitution: he is co-editor of the Delaware Constitution of 1897, The First One Hundred Years and author of The Delaware Constitution: A Reference Guide. Justice Holland has taught state constitutional law as an adjunct professor for many years.
In 2009, he co-authored a law school casebook on that subject from the perspective of all 50 states entitled State Constitutional Law, The Modern Experience.
With Holland’s encouragement, the Conference of Chief Justices passed a unanimous resolution recommending that all law schools offer courses on state constitutions.
Holland is the past national President of the American Inns of Court Foundation.
A Republican, Holland, who has long been admired for his legal scholarship, was never nominated for Chief Justice, an outgrowth of decades of Democrats controlling the governor’s office and at least one house of the General Assembly.
Holland has received numerous awards, including the 2014 American Inns of Court Powell Award for Professionalism and Ethics, 2012 First State Distinguished Service Award, the 2011 Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence, the 2009 James Wilson Award from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, the 2007 American Inns of Court Christensen Award, the 2003 American Judicature Society’s Herbert Harley Award, and the 1992 Judge of the Year Award from the National Child Support Enforcement Association.
Holland has written, co-authored, or edited nine books: Magna Carta: Muse & Mentor (2014), Delaware’s Destiny Determined By Lewes (2013); Delaware Corporation Law, Selected Cases (2011 Chinese (Taiwan) only); State Constitutional Law, the Modern Experience, co-author (West 2010); Middle Temple Lawyers and the American Revolution, co-author (Thomson-West 2007); Appellate Practice and Procedure, co-author (West 2005); The Delaware Constitution: A Reference Guide (Greenwood Press 2002) (Oxford University Press 2017); Delaware Supreme Court: Golden Anniversary (2001), co-editor; and The Delaware Constitution of 1897 – The First One Hundred Years, co-editor. He has also published several law review articles, primarily dealing with judicial ethics and legal history.
