Delaware Supreme Court Justice Tamika Montgomery-Reeves was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday, positioning her to potentially be one of the first two Black women to ever sit on the court.
It wouldn’t be the first bench where she’d break such a barrier, having been the first Black judge ever appointed to either the Supreme Court or the Court of Chancery. If confirmed to the Third Circuit, she’d either be the first Black woman to hold a seat on that bench or the second, if Arianna J. Freeman, whom Biden nominated in January, is confirmed first.
Black women currently make up less than 4% of all sitting federal judges, according to the Federal Judicial Center, and that proportion is slightly lower in the appellate circuits.
“Her legal acumen and commitment to service are clear, but in 2022, African Americans— especially African American lawyers and judges—are far too often ‘firsts,’” said LaBarron Boone of Beasley Allen Law Firm, the president of the National Black Lawyers, referencing Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson being sworn in as the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday. “These two stellar women bring not only diversity to our highest courts, but a wealth of legal knowledge, impartiality, and judicial discretion. As Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ So today, I am thankful. However, the journey is not complete.”
