One might believe the legislature needn’t pass SB 53, because it already did such incredible vetting of Andre Bouchard before placing an attorney from private practice, with zero bench experience, into one of the most powerful jobs in the world; way too powerful in my opinion. Except, they’d be wrong. After watching Senator Elizabeth Warren’s endless ripping up of Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch before his confirmation, I thought it would be interesting to see what diligence the Delaware legislature did in confirming Bouchard as Delaware’s Chancellor??

Why should TransPefect Global owners and employees have been worried about how Bouchard would legislate this case? They assumed this judge would rule fairly because he was supposed to be well-versed in the law, judicial ethics, the Constitution, and his Chancery Court powers??

Ahead of his approval to the bench, was Bouchard asked the following questions?: Would you apply the law fair and impartially? No he was not asked!

Will you govern your decision by U.S. Constitution? No he was not asked! Was he asked whether he was familiar with the Constitution? No, he was not!

Did anyone even ask him if he read the Constitution?! No!

Was he asked how he would apply what he knew about the Constitution? 
No! Was he asked about his politics and if he would remain impartial? No!

Was he asked about how he saw his role as head of Delaware’s Court of Equity? No! Did anyone ask him ANY tough questions at all? Not a single question!

Was he asked what he knew about being a judge? No.

How do I know the answer is no to all these questions?

Folks, there were Zero questions in his 13 minute hearing — I can prove it.

Now is the chance to make this right, by contacting your Delaware State Senators! Please get involved and help pass SB 53!

Mistakes and mis-judgements like this only matter if we don’t take action in the present. I’m appealing to our lawmakers in Delaware… now is the time to help!

There have been hundreds of articles in the U.S. and around the globe about how this case has been mishandled and may hurt jobs at TransPerfect and hurt Delaware too!

Plea with your legislators to help now. Folks, now is the time where we can make this right!

It took just 13 minutes for Chancellor Bouchard to get rubber-stamped by the Senate’s Executive Committee in 2014. Unanimous vote. Can you see the cronyism that exists at a high-degree in America’s First State. Buying a new pair of shoes has been known to take longer!

Please look at this story below from just two years ago by Celia Cohen about our esteemed Chancellor of Delaware’s equity court, the Court of Chancery, which is famous for its fair decisions, which is one of the reasons Delaware is the nation’s incorporation leader.

Read about Bouchard’s 13-mintues below, and see for yourself my friends:

 

SPEED-VOTING FOR CHANCELLOR

By Celia Cohen

Posted: April 10, 2014

Grapevine Political Writer

 

“Thirteen minutes were all it took for Delaware to get a new chancellor.

Seven minutes for a confirmation hearing by the Senate’s Executive Committee, another six minutes for consideration by the full Senate for a unanimous 21-0 vote on Wednesday in Legislative Hall in Dover, and that was that.

It put Andy Bouchard a swearing-in ceremony away from the most storied judgeship in the state as the chief of the Court of Chancery, the famed forum for corporate law.

Buying a new pair of shoes has been known to take longer. A lot longer.

It went so fast that Greg Lavelle, the Republican minority whip, felt compelled to explain the rapid roll call, almost sheepishly, to a visiting delegation of lawmakers from Kenya.

“For our guests, sometimes this is worth repeating, there’s a nominating process for all these positions, a lot of vetting, a lot of interviews and discussions. While there are not any questions here today, the questions have been asked on the front side of these proceedings,” Lavelle said.

Without the words to the Kenyans, Bouchard could have been out of there in twelve minutes.

Still, Lavelle had something there. This is the way it goes in a small state, where everybody knows everybody else or at least they like to think they do. Even the official nominating channels — with candidates passing from the Judicial Nominating Commission to the governor to the Senate — seem to hold less sway than the informal evaluation that goes on.

Bouchard, who will be leaving behind a corporate practice at Bouchard Margules & Friedlander, is a well-regarded presence in legal circles. If he was not a unanimous choice for chancellor among the bench and bar — and who would be? — there was certainly a consensus he was up to it.

The downside to the small-state familiarity that makes a known quantity out of its judicial candidates is the coziness that goes with it.

Ever since Myron Steele announced shortly after Labor Day he would be stepping down as chief justice, it was regarded as a foregone conclusion that Leo Strine Jr. would be elevated from chancellor to chief justice with Bouchard in line to take over in Chancery.

While there was nevertheless a robust pool of applicants for chief justice, the sense of inevitability prevailed by the time it came to choose a chancellor, and the Judicial Nominating Commission was left to beg for candidates not named Bouchard.

Bouchard has 30 days from his confirmation to take his judicial oath for a 12-year term.

He is a graduate of Salesianum, Boston College and Harvard Law, and he chaired the Judicial Nominating Commission until he left it to apply himself. He was a regular contributor to Democratic campaigns, although those contributions have to stop now, with checks going to Jack Markell, the governor who appointed him, as well as the vice president and the congressional delegation.

Another reason for the speed-voting on Bouchard may well be judgeship fatigue.

The Senate had to plow through nine confirmations for judges last year, and it has handled the nominations for chief justice and chancellor, the state’s premier judicial assignments, this year.

Nor is it done yet. Not only is there a Superior Court opening, but Jack Jacobs, a Supreme Court justice, unexpectedly announced his retirement as of July 4.

Since Jacobs is departing four days after the legislature’s regular session ends on June 30, the Senate will have to return for a special session, probably in August or September, just as the campaign season is coming on.

If Jacobs’ replacement is drawn from a lower court, it would mean yet another special session.

At least Bouchard comes from private practice, so nobody has to be nominated to replace him.”