Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-309_4f15.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2020) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

Sixth, other than the act of filing the lawsuit itself, the 
summary judgment record contains no evidence of conver-
sations or other actions taken by Adams suggesting that he
was “able and ready” to apply for a judgeship. 

During his deposition, Adams provided explanations for 
this negative evidence.  He said that his failure to apply for
available  judgeships  at  the  time  when  he  was  eligible  re-
flected his lack of interest in being a judge at that time.  He 
was then content to work at the Department of Justice.  Id., 
at 35; Brief for Respondent 17–18.  Adams added that his 
return from retirement to “Active” bar membership in 2017 
showed that he decided on becoming a judge later in life and 
after a change in administration at the Delaware Depart-
ment of Justice.  App. 33.  (Adams did not explain his failure
to apply in 2014, though, when, he said, he was interested 
in a judgeship.)  Adams further explained that his contem-
poraneous  change  of  political  affiliation  was  because  he 
“tend[s]  to  be  much  more  progressive  and  liberal  than
[D]emocrats in Delaware.”  Id., at 41.  Although he had been 
a  lifelong  Democrat,  and  actively  involved  with  the  Dela-
ware Democratic Party, he said then that he “probably con-
sider[s]” himself “more of a Bernie [Sanders] independent.” 
Id.,  at  42.  Finally,  in Adams’  view,  the  lack  of  other  evi-
dence proves little or nothing about his intentions. 

C 
This is a highly fact-specific case.  In our view, three con-
siderations, taken together, convince us that the record ev-
idence fails to show that, at the time he commenced the law-
suit, Adams was “able and ready” to apply for a judgeship 
in the reasonably foreseeable future.  First, as we have just
laid  out,  Adams’  words  “I  would  apply  . . .  ”  stand  alone 
without any actual past injury, without reference to an an-
ticipated timeframe, without prior judgeship applications, 
without prior relevant conversations, without efforts to de-