Merrick Garland | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2021 | |
| 86th United States Attorney General | |
| Assumed office March 11, 2021 | |
| President | Joe Biden |
| Deputy | Lisa Monaco |
| Preceded by | William Barr |
| Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| In office February 12, 2013 – February 11, 2020 | |
| Preceded by | David B. Sentelle |
| Succeeded by | Sri Srinivasan |
| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit | |
| In office March 20, 1997 – March 11, 2021 | |
| Appointed by | Bill Clinton |
| Preceded by | Abner Mikva |
| Succeeded by | Ketanji Brown Jackson |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Merrick Brian Garland November 13, 1952 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Lynn Rosenman (m. 1987) |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Harvard University (BA, JD) |
| Awards | Henry J. Friendly Medal (2022) |
| Signature |  |
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 86th United States attorney general since 2021. He previously served as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Republican-led U.S. Senate did not hold a vote to confirm him.
A native of the Chicago area, Garland attended Harvard University and Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk to Judge Henry Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., and then practiced corporate litigation at Arnold & Porter, after which he worked as a federal prosecutor in the United States Department of Justice, where he supervised the investigation and prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers. President Bill Clinton appointed Garland to the D.C. Court of Appeals in 1997, and he served as its chief judge from 2013 to 2020.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated Garland to serve as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in March 2016 to fill the vacancy created by the death of Antonin Scalia. However, the Republican Senate majority refused to hold a hearing or vote on his nomination. The unprecedented refusal of a Senate majority to consider a Supreme Court nomination was highly controversial. Garland's nomination lasted 293 days (the longest to date), and it expired on January 3, 2017, at the end of the 114th Congress. Eventually, President Donald Trump, a Republican, nominated Neil Gorsuch to the vacant seat, and the Republican Senate majority confirmed him.
President Joe Biden nominated Garland as U.S. attorney general in January 2021. He was confirmed by the Senate in a 70–30 vote, and took office in March of that same year.