[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 192 (Monday, December 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7096-S7098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



               Nomination of Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm 
Tamika Montgomery-Reeves to a Delaware seat on the Third Circuit Court 
of Appeals.
  Justice Montgomery-Reeves has significant experience as both a 
litigator and a judge.
  She received degrees from the University of Mississippi and the 
University of Georgia School of Law before clerking on the Delaware 
Court of Chancery. Following this role, she worked as a litigator with 
two national law firms, where she focused on complex commercial 
matters.
  In 2015, Justice Montgomery-Reeves was appointed to serve on 
Delaware's Chancery Court. There, she presided over cases involving 
corporate issues, trusts, estates, real property, and other contractual 
matters. In 2019, she was appointed to serve as a justice on the 
Delaware Supreme Court. She is both the youngest person ever to serve 
on that court and the first African-American supreme court justice in 
Delaware history.
  During her time on the bench, Justice Montgomery-Reeves has 
demonstrated a fair judicial temperament and a deep commitment to 
evenhanded decisionmaking. In recognition of her exceptional legal 
acumen, the committee has received many letters of support from her 
colleagues in both private practice and on the bench.
  Justice Montgomery-Reeves has been rated unanimously ``well 
qualified'' by the American Bar Association, and she has strong support 
from her home State Senators, Mr. Carper and Mr. Coons.
  I strongly support her nomination and urge my colleagues to do the 
same.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Today, it is my honor to rise in support of the Honorable 
Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves to be confirmed to the U.S. Court of 
Appeals for the Third Circuit.
  Just a few months ago, in September of this year, I had the privilege 
to introduce Justice Montgomery-Reeves at her Senate Judiciary 
Committee confirmation hearing, where she was

[[Page S7097]]

joined in the audience by her large family and I think most of the 
State of Delaware.
  As my colleague from Illinois, the chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee, will attest, we needed a few extra chairs at that hearing in 
order to accommodate Tamika's family and her friends. Many Delawareans, 
including the entire Delaware Court of Chancery and the current chief 
justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, either made the trek down I-95 
or on the Amtrak train that morning to cheer on Justice Montgomery-
Reeves. Today, we bring her nomination one step closer to final 
confirmation.
  My colleague from Delaware, Senator Coons, and I have often said that 
those of us in the Senate could learn a thing or two from the First 
State. When it comes to nominating judges, Delaware's Governor is 
tasked with filling vacancies on some of the Nation's most highly 
regarded State courts, including the Court of Chancery and the Delaware 
Supreme Court.
  The Governor routinely seeks advice from a bipartisan judicial 
nominating commission but is also required to nominate judges from both 
political parties. We literally have an overall political balance 
across our judiciary. This rule, enshrined in our State's constitution, 
brings balance to our court system. I believe it has served our State 
and our Nation well for over a century. I think it is a pretty good 
model for the rest of the country, actually.
  Twenty-five years ago, when I was privileged to serve as Governor of 
Delaware, I had the opportunity to nominate a new chancellor--or what 
some would call a chief justice--to the Delaware Court of Chancery. I 
could have nominated a Democrat. I ended up nominating Bill Chandler.
  Bill Chandler was born in Sussex County in southern Delaware and 
previously worked for two Republican Governors--Pete du Pont and Mike 
Castle. I will tell you, I took some heat politically for that 
nomination, but I believed that he was the best qualified person for 
the job, and all these years later, I still believe that. It didn't 
matter what political party he was from; I knew he would be one heck of 
a chancellor, and, boy, was he.
  As chancellor, Bill Chandler earned the respect of our Nation's 
business and legal communities as a fairminded judge with the utmost 
integrity, and along the way, he hired and mentored countless law 
students and law clerks. As it turns out, Bill Chandler hired a young 
law student, a native of Mississippi, who was a law student at the 
University of Georgia. He nominated her to be one of his clerks in 
2006. Her name was and still is Tamika Montgomery-Reeves.
  I am a proud Delawarean, but, as I think my colleague the Presiding 
Officer knows, I am a native son, actually, of West Virginia. Justice 
Montgomery-Reeves is also a proud Delawarean, but, like me, she made 
her way to Delaware from another place--in her case, Mississippi--and 
fell in love with our State, just as I did many years ago.
  After clerking for Chancellor Chandler, Tamika graduated and began a 
career in private practice. She became an expert in corporate law and 
complex business litigation. After a brief stint in private practice in 
New York, she was hired by another prominent law firm, Wilson Sonsini, 
which just happened to be looking to open up an office in--guess 
where--Delaware, the First State. She quickly made partner and could 
have continued on a path toward a lucrative legal career, but Tamika 
felt called to serve.
  In 2015, a vacancy occurred on our Court of Chancery, and then-
Governor Jack Markell nominated her to the bench to serve on that 
court. And she was confirmed unanimously by the Delaware State Senate.

  Four years later, in 2019, Governor John Carney nominated her to 
serve on the Delaware State Supreme Court; and, once again, she was 
confirmed unanimously by the Delaware State Senate, by every single 
Democrat and, just as importantly, by every single Republican.
  And by the way, Mr. President and colleagues here in our Chamber 
today, the Delaware State Senate leadership, both Democrats and 
Republicans, have sent a letter in support of Justice Montgomery-
Reeves' confirmation to the Third Circuit.
  It is part of the reason that she has earned bipartisan support in 
the Judiciary Committee, and that nine of our friends on the other side 
of the aisle voted to invoke cloture on her nomination just last week.
  On behalf of Senator Coons and myself--I want to take my hat off to 
him for helping to guide this nomination through the Judiciary 
Committee on to the floor and through last week's cloture vote--we want 
to thank all of our colleagues--all of our colleagues--Democrats and 
Republicans, who voted last week on moving forward Tamika's nomination.
  Having said that, Justice Montgomery-Reeves is also a trailblazer, 
becoming the first African American to serve on both the Delaware Court 
of Chancery and on the Delaware Supreme Court.
  Justice Montgomery-Reeves has been nominated to these positions 
because her credentials and her intellect are top-notch, and I might 
add, just as importantly, so is her heart.
  In addition to her incredible academic and legal career, Tamika and 
her husband, Jeffrey, are raising two wonderful boys--sons that any of 
us would be proud to call their own--and raising them back home in 
Delaware.
  So I would just say to them--Jeffrey, Jackson, and Tyson--if you are 
watching at home, thank you for allowing your wife and your mom to 
continue her service to our country in this new role. I know you are 
proud of her, and we are proud of her as well.
  Let me close by saying that I am certain that if Tamika Montgomery-
Reeves is confirmed, that the Delaware Supreme Court's loss will be our 
Nation's gain. She will bring a spirit of collegiality and consensus to 
the Third Circuit, just as she has in the courts that she served on in 
Delaware.
  She is not an ideologue; she is an ideal judge.
  Justice Montgomery-Reeves is of the highest caliber judges in our 
State and our Nation and has my strongest possible endorsement.
  I urge all of our colleagues to join Senator Coons and me--Democrats 
and Republicans--in support of her nomination. She will not disappoint.
  I would like to yield the floor to my colleague, who has done a great 
job in helping to steer this nomination and, actually, to help make the 
nomination possible in the first place. It is my pleasure, Senator 
Coons.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleague and 
senior Senator.
  As a member of the Delaware bar myself for 30 years and a member of 
the Senate Judiciary Committee, I could not be prouder of the moment we 
are about to participate in here in the U.S. Senate confirming the next 
member of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
  It was 30 years ago that I was a clerk on that same court for Judge 
Jane Roth of Wilmington, DE, a distinguished jurist, a remarkable mind, 
and a great leader in the Delaware bench and bar.
  And I am thrilled that, as we left Thursday evening, we had, by a 
bipartisan vote of 57-to-39, the cloture vote that set up the 
confirmation vote that is about to happen here; and of those votes, 
nine were from our Republican colleagues.
  Frankly, she should be confirmed here unanimously, as she was by the 
Delaware State Senate, but we are in a more divided, more partisan 
time, and I am thrilled that we had as strong and bipartisan a vote in 
the committee and here in the Senate as we have.
  It reflects the fact that Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves is a 
highly qualified, well-rounded, skilled nominee to the Third Circuit.
  The Third Circuit is one of those Federal circuit courts that 
provides a critical role. The most important cases in our country go to 
Federal courts, although Delaware jurists would disagree, and of the 
courts that hear those cases--overwhelmingly district courts--only a 
few of those cases are appealed and make it to a circuit court, and a 
tiny number of cases make it to the U.S. Supreme Court.
  So for the States represented on the Third Circuit--Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands--this is likely 
the last stop for almost every major appeal.
  And in just a few moments, someone known for her skill, her 
intellect, her patience, her compassion will be confirmed by this 
Senate and sent on her

[[Page S7098]]

way to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
  She is very highly regarded in Delaware as a member of our supreme 
court. She is someone highly regarded by our bench and bar.
  We have, in front of our committee, letters of endorsement from 
Governor John Carney as well as former Governor Jack Markell.
  And as you heard from my colleague, the Delaware State Senate 
unanimously endorsed her.
  She served on the Delaware Court of Chancery, the premier business 
court in our country, from 2015 to 2019.
  And she is a trailblazer: the first Black woman to serve on the 
Delaware Court of Chancery and on the Delaware Supreme Court and soon 
on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
  Her confirmation today will add diversity to a court that represents 
three States and the Virgin Islands, which are demonstrably diverse. 
And in our country, this helps to further advance representation and 
justice.
  I want to thank my chief counsel, Cassie Fields, for playing a 
central role in shepherding her nomination through the committee and 
through this floor.
  And I want to close by saying that I want to express my deepest 
personal thanks to this native of Jackson, MS, this graduate of the 
University of Mississippi and University of Georgia School of Law, who, 
through the good offices of Chancellor Bill Chandler, found her way to 
practice in Delaware, to service on the Delaware Court of Chancery; 
through the help and leadership of our State Senate and our Governor to 
service on our State supreme court; and in just a few moments, to the 
Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
  To Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves, to your husband Jeffrey, your 
sons Jackson and Tyson: Congratulations. Know that our President and 
our Senate is proud of you, has confidence in you, and looks forward to 
your years of service on this most important Federal Circuit Court.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SCHATZ. I ask unanimous consent that we start the 5:30 vote right 
now.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.