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Page Number: 10

8 

CARNEY v. ADAMS 

Opinion of the Court 

Republicans  were  eligible  for  those  positions  that  year. 
Ibid.  He was wrong about that.  In particular, there were
three vacancies on those two courts in 2014 for which he, as 
a Democrat, was eligible.  Id., at 51–54.  Adams later con-
ceded  that  he  had  indeed  been  eligible  to  apply  for  those 
vacancies, but he had not done so.  Id., at 43–46. 

Second, on December 31, 2015, after roughly 12 years as
a  lawyer  for  the  Delaware  Department  of  Justice,  Adams 
retired.  Id., at 32, 58.  In February 2016, Adams changed 
his bar membership from “Active” to “Emeritus” status.  Id., 
at 61.  He then returned to “Active” status in January 2017. 
Ibid.  In his deposition, he stated that at about that same
time in the “[b]eginning of the year, January/February,” he 
read a law review article arguing that Delaware’s judicial
eligibility requirements were unconstitutional because they 
excluded independents.  Id., at 38; see Friedlander, Is Del-
aware’s  “Other  Major  Political  Party”  Really  Entitled  to 
Half of Delaware’s Judiciary? 58 Ariz. L. Rev. 1139 (2016).
Adams called the article’s author and said, “ ‘I just read your 
Law Review . . . article.  I’d like to pursue this.’ ”  App. 38.
The author suggested several attorneys who might handle 
the matter.  Ibid. 

Third, shortly thereafter, on February 13, 2017, Adams
changed his political affiliation from Democrat to unaffili-
ated independent.  Id., at 67.  Before that, he had been a 
Democrat his “whole life” and actively involved in the Del-
aware  Democratic  Party.    Id.,  at  41.  Leaving  the  party
made it less likely that he would become a judge.  But doing 
so made it possible for him to vindicate his view of the law 
as set forth in the article. 

Fourth,  after  Adams  became  a  political  independent  on
February 13, 2017, he filed this lawsuit eight days later on 
February 21.  Id., at 1. 

Fifth, Adams said in his answer to interrogatories that he 
“has  no  knowledge  of  what  judicial  positions  may  become 
open in the next year.”  Id., at 62.