Garland, Merrick (1952-…), became United States attorney general in the Cabinet of President Joe Biden in 2021. Prior to taking the post, Garland had served as a judge on the U.S. Court of appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Merrick Brian Garland was born in Chicago, Illinois, on Nov. 13, 1952. He earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University in 1974. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1977. After receiving his law degree, Garland worked as a law clerk for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. From 1979 to 1981, Garland served as a special assistant to the attorney general in the administration of President Jimmy Carter .
In 1981, Garland joined the Washington, D.C., law firm Arnold & Porter. He became a partner in the firm in 1985. Garland left private practice in 1989 to serve as assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia. He rejoined the law firm in 1992 and 1993. From 1993 to 1997, Garland held positions in the U.S. Department of Justice under the administration of President Bill Clinton . In those roles, Garland supervised investigations into such domestic terrorism cases as the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995; the so-called Unabomber case; and the bombing during the Olympic Games held in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1996.
In 1995, President Clinton nominated Garland to fill a vacant seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Senate Republicans , questioning whether to fill the vacancy, stalled the nomination. The Senate later confirmed Garland to the position after Clinton again nominated him in 1997. Garland served as chief judge of the court from 2013 to 2020. Court observers described Garland as a centrist, leaning liberal on such issues as environmental regulation and gun control and taking more conservative stances when addressing questions of criminal law.
In March 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court of the United States caused by the death of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia a month earlier. Garland’s nomination, however, never came up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. Senate Republicans insisted that the next Supreme Court choice be made by the next president. In 2017, Republican Donald Trump, Obama’s successor, nominated federal judge Neil Gorsuch to fill the vacancy created by Scalia’s death. The Senate confirmed Gorsuch’s nomination in April. President Biden, Trump’s successor, nominated Garland to serve as attorney general in 2021. The Senate confirmed the nomination in March.
