President-elect Joe Biden has reportedly selected his Attorney General nominee: Judge Merrick Garland.
The choice feels significant for several reasons, most notably that Senate Republicans spurned Garland’s nomination to the high court by then-President Barack Obama in 2016, refusing to even bring it up for debate, reports Politico, which broke the story, citing two sources “with knowledge of the decision.”
Now they’ll have to deal with him — when it appears the Democrats will control the Senate, following Tuesday’s runoff elections in Georgia.
“Biden selected Garland over former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates,” Politico says, “choosing to elevate [Garland], the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals in D.C., to run the Justice Department.”
Garland is a veteran judge who held senior Justice Department positions in years past, “including as a supervisor of the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing,” says the Associated Press.
“Garland has called his work on the Oklahoma City case ‘the most important thing I have ever done in my life,’ and his selection suggests that the incoming Biden administration wants someone running the Justice Department with experience in dealing with domestic terrorism,” says the Washington Post.
Garland would also “be tasked with carrying out Biden’s agenda on criminal justice, which the president-elect has said will focus on issues of racial justice,” the Post says.
Biden is expected to make the nomination — his last for a major cabinet position — official on Thursday.
“To many legal observers, he seems an ideal candidate to restore the Justice Department’s independence and credibility which was eroded under president Trump. He enjoys a reputation as a unifying, moderating force on the appeals court, and has previous experience in the Justice Department,” the Post says.
To most Americans, Garland, 68, is best known not for anything he’s done — important as it may be — but for something he was prevented from doing: taking a seat on the Supreme Court.
Garland’s 2016 Supreme Court nomination to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia went nowhere after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to allow a vote. The seat was ultimately taken by Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017.
The prospective Democratic Senate majority “smooths the path to confirmation” for Garland and Biden’s other Cabinet picks, says The Hill.
“That majority is especially critical for confirming Garland, as Biden could then appoint his replacement on the court in D.C., which is considered among the most influential in the country.”
