Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland was born on November 13, 1952, in Chicago, IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is a state of the United States that borders Lake Michigan and the states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Iowa; its capital is Springfield and its largest city is Chicago. It was admitted to the Union on December 3, 1818, as the 21st state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 12,812,508.Open the full entry, and grew up in a suburb of the city. His father, Cyril Garland, founded an advertising agency, and his mother, Shirley (Horwitz) Garland, was a community volunteer; his grandparents had immigrated to the United States to escape antisemitism in Europe.⁠[1][2][3]

He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College of Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry in 1974 with a degree in social studies, and in 1977 earned a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.⁠[3][4][5]

From 1977 to 1978 he was a law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and from 1978 to 1979 to Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the Supreme Court of the United StatesSupreme Court of the United StatesThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court of the U.S. federal judiciary. Established under the Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789, it has consisted since 1869 of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices and sits in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry.⁠[5]

From 1979 to 1981 he was special assistant to Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti. In 1981 he joined the Washington, D.C., law firm Arnold & Porter, later becoming a partner and working on civil and criminal litigation, antitrust and administrative law; he also taught antitrust at Harvard Law School. He remained in private practice in Washington until 1989.⁠[3][4][5]

From 1989 to 1992 he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, returning briefly to private practice in 1992–1993. He was Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division from 1993 to 1994 and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General from 1994 to 1997.⁠[5]

At the Justice Department he directly supervised nationally significant investigations and prosecutions, including the Oklahoma City bombing, Unabomber and Montana Freemen cases.⁠[4]

On September 5, 1995, he was first nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the Senate did not vote. On January 7, 1997, President Bill ClintonBill ClintonBill Clinton (born 1946) is an American politician and lawyer, a Democrat who served as attorney general and governor of Arkansas and as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001.Open the full entry nominated him again, to the seat vacated by Abner Joseph Mikva; the Senate confirmed him on March 19, and his commission was issued on March 20, 1997.⁠[5]

He served as the court’s chief judge from 2013 to 2020, during which he was a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, chairing its Executive Committee from 2017 to 2020. His judicial service ended with his retirement on March 10, 2021.⁠[5][4]

After the death of Antonin Scalia, President Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court of the United States on March 16, 2016; the Senate did not vote on the nomination. In April 2017 Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to the seat.⁠[5][2]

On January 7, 2021, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced him as his choice for attorney general. On March 10 the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 70 to 30 (Rollcall Vote No. 114), and on March 11 he was sworn in by Vice President Kamala HarrisKamala HarrisKamala Harris (born 1964) is an American politician and lawyer who served as Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, as a U.S. senator from 2017 to 2021, and as the 49th Vice President of the United States from 2021 to 2025.Open the full entry as the 86th Attorney General of the United States.⁠[1][6][4]

On July 1, 2021, he ordered a temporary halt to federal executions while Justice Department officials reviewed the relevant policies.⁠[1]

On November 18, 2022, he announced the appointment of Jack SmithJack Smith (special counsel)Jack Smith is an American prosecutor who served as chief of the U.S. Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section and as Specialist Prosecutor of the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office; he was appointed a Justice Department special counsel on November 18, 2022, and concluded that work in January 2025.Open the full entry, a former career Justice Department prosecutor and former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, as special counsel to oversee two ongoing criminal investigations. He said: “I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”⁠[7]

His tenure as attorney general ended in 2025. On May 23, 2025, he returned to Arnold & Porter as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office.⁠[8][1]

In 1987 he married Lynn (Rosenman) Garland; they have two daughters, Jessica and Rebecca.⁠[1][3]

U.S. Department of Justice (Attorney General Merrick B. Garland biography): Web page: https://www.justice.gov/node/997436 (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

Federal Judicial Center (judicial biography of Merrick B. Garland): Web page: https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/garland-merrick-b (opens in a new window).⁠[5]

Arnold & Porter (Merrick B. Garland profile): Web page: https://www.arnoldporter.com/en/people/g/garland-merrick (opens in a new window).⁠[8]