Better late than never. Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP/Shutterstock It’s more than four years too late and a Supreme Court seat short, but Merrick Garland is finally going to get his Senate confirmation hearing. On Wednesday, Joe Biden leaked his intention to name the D.C. Circuit Court judge as his nominee for attorney general. In 2016, Barack Obama turned Garland into a household name when he nominated the jurist as his pick to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
The timing of Garland’s nod — coming the day after Democrats swept a pair of runoff elections in Georgia, thereby securing control of the Senate — is likely no coincidence. In addition to Garland, Biden had reportedly been considering former senator Doug Jones and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates for the position.
Now that Chuck Schumer is poised to become majority leader, however, Garland’s present job actually counts in his favor. By lifting the 68-year-old out of the judiciary, Biden clears the way for a younger, potentially more progressive replacement whom a Democratic Senate will surely confirm on a party-line vote if necessary.
Before his days in judicial robes, Garland held multiple high-level positions at the Justice Department, where he supervised the prosecution of the perpetrators of the Oklahoma City bombing. Biden reportedly feels Garland will command uniquely unanimous respect among the DOJ’s career staff, as he had served in the department under both Democratic and Republican administrations.
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