District of Delaware Welcomes Judges Connolly and Noreika

The United States District Court for the District of Delaware is pleased to welcome the Honorable Colm F. Connolly and the Honorable Maryellen Noreika as United States District Court Judges.

Judge Connolly and Judge Noreika both took the oath of office this week. They become the 26th and 27th individuals in the history of the Court to be appointed as District Judges.

The new Judges will begin to be assigned new cases on August 15. From that point forward, all four of the Court’s active District Judges will receive an approximately equal share of new cases, consistent with the case assignment practices that were in place when the Court was last at full strength, on February 3, 2017.

The Court will be eliminating the Vacant Judgeship ("VAC") docket. VAC cases that are currently assigned to a Magistrate Judge will – absent consent of the parties to the jurisdiction of the Magistrate Judge – be reassigned to a District Judge, principally Judges Connolly and Noreika.

The Court will also be phasing out the regular assignment of cases to Visiting Judges. Cases that are currently assigned to a Visiting Judge will either remain with such Visiting Judge or may alternatively be reassigned to a Delaware District Judge, principally to Judges Connolly and Noreika.

Senior Judge Sleet will be retiring from the bench at the end of September. All GMS cases will be reassigned, by a date on or around Judge Sleet’s retirement, principally to Judges Connolly and Noreika.

The case reassignment plans announced here are likely to take many weeks to complete.

Public investiture ceremonies for the new Judges will be held in the coming months. Further details will be provided when available.