Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware Campaign Manager Chris Coffey has released the following statement after news that Gov. John Carney will nominate Tamika Montgomery-Reeves.
“Today is a monumental victory for our nearly 4,000 members who have voiced their outrage at the status quo, but it is not enough. Our message is being heard by those in power and our voices will only grow louder until Delaware is fully done with the old boys’ clubs, done with opaque judicial processes, and brought in to the 21st century,” Coffey stated.
“One Supreme Court appointee alone will not undo decades of systemic issues in the Delaware judicial system. As noted in a 2019 Brennan Center for Justice report on state Supreme Court diversity, a historic lack of diverse representation in state Supreme Courts has led to a “deep distrust of courts among African Americans,” Coffey added.
Coffey went on to air one of the group’s grievances that include the ability of members of Chancery Curt to choose their own cases.
Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 2,700 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect .
Citizens has been under fire from members of the Delaware legal community with critics claiming it is using the issue of court diversity as a front for a continuing campaign by TransPerfect owner Philip Shawe to discredit Chancery Court.
Shawe was deeply unhappy with the process of selling the company, even though he prevailed in the case. (See story below).
Shawe did win a legal victory with Chancery ruling that the law firm for the custodian of the company must issue itemized invoices. The custodian was appointed by Chancery Court and later recommended the company be sold to Shawe. Chancery ended up with the case after a deadlock between 50-50 owners Shawe and Elizabeth Elting.
Multicultural section of State Bar disassociates itself from TransPerfect group
