Delaware’s judicial selection process is not predetermined for favored candidates, several legal observers said last week in response to retiring Supreme Court Justice Carolyn Berger’s assertion that she was not taken seriously as a state Supreme Court chief justice candidate.
Several observers said the state’s small bar makes it easy for people to take strong guesses on the presumptive favorite, but it doesn’t mean other candidates are out of the running. ”People are going to handicap the selection process like a horse race,” said former Chief Justice Myron T. Steele, now a partner with Potter Anderson & Corroon. “Everyone picks their own horse based on criteria like bloodlines, trainers, experience and the way a horse interacts with the jockey. People handicap the judicial selection process in the same way.”
