Page 15 - Delaware Lawyer - Summer 2022

the lowest first-time bar passage rates inthecountry.Wealsohavethehigh- est cut score in the nation. And we are the only state in our region that does not offer the Uniform Bar Exam with reciprocity for other states.
I’m deeply proud of everyone who worked together on this plan, which is not only forward-thinking but spe- cific and achievable. I cannot be clear enough about this: this plan cannot be allowed to sit on a shelf gathering dust. Putting its recommendations into prac- tice will not be easy and will force all of us to have some difficult conversations, including how we go about making the bar exam more inclusive and less exclu- sionary. But these recommendations will work if we set an action plan and make the effort to put them into prac- tice. Difficult as the work ahead may be,
we can and must rise to the challenge. I, along with the entire Department of Justice and some of our state’s fin- est officers of the court, am committed to driving this plan forward in whatever way I can.
We cannot adequately go about our work without representatives from di- verse communities, and it the duty of those who are already at the table to ensure that seats are available to oth- ers. Only then can we begin to pave a path towards true equity and a le- gal system that serves all of us fully and faithfully; one where the reality of our work reflects the ideals of our mission. I am confident in the value of this work, the ability and agency we all have to make it a reality, and the brightness of a future that we still have the power to choose.
NOTES
1. 2020 Census, https://www.census.gov/ library/stories/state-by-state/delaware-popu- lation-change-between-census-decade.html 2. This statistic may be conservative; in limited staff surveys, a higher number of DAGs — closer to 30% — have self-identified as Black, multiracial, or members of another community of color. However, response rates in those surveys were not sufficient to extrap- olate to the full universe of DAGs.
3 . h t t p s : // w w w . u s a t o d a y . c o m / s t o r y / n e w s / education/2021/07/09/black-women- underrepresented-tenure-university-facul- ty/7890102002
4. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2021/12/10/americas-public-school- teachers-are-far-less-racially-and-ethnically- diverse-than-their-students
5. https://fortune.com/2020/06/01/ black-ceos-fortune-500-2020-african-ameri- can-business-leaders
6. E.g., Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857); Slaughter-House Cases (1873); Civil Rights Cases (1883); Breedlove v. Suttles (1937); and Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).
7. 32 Del. Ch. 343 (1952).
8. 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
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