Merrick Garland

His father, Cyril Garland (1915–2000), headed Garland Advertising, a small business run out of the family home.

Garland was raised in Conservative Judaism; the family name had been changed from Garfinkel several generations earlier.

His grandparents left the Pale of Settlement in the western Russian Empire in the early 20th century, fleeing antisemitic pogroms in what is now Ukraine and Poland, and seeking a better life for their children in the United States.

Two of his grandmother's siblings were later murdered in the Holocaust.

He is a second cousin of Republican six-term Iowa Governor and former Ambassador to China Terry Branstad.

Garland attended Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, where he was president of the student council, acted in theatrical productions, and was a member of the debate team.

His mother Shirley (née Horwitz; 1925–2016) was a director of volunteer services at Chicago's Council for Jewish Elderly (now called CJE SeniorLife).

Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as the 86th United States attorney general.

Merrick Brian Garland was born on November 13, 1952, in Chicago.

He grew up in the north Chicago border suburb of Lincolnwood.

Garland wrote his 235-page honors thesis on industrial mergers in Britain in the 1960s.

He graduated in 1970 as the class valedictorian.

Garland was also a Presidential Scholar and National Merit Scholar.

After high school, Garland studied social studies at Harvard University.

He initially wanted to become a physician, but soon decided to become a lawyer instead.

He allied himself with his future boss, Jamie Gorelick, when he was elected the only freshman member of a campus-wide committee on which Gorelick also served.

During his college summers Garland volunteered as a speechwriter to Congressman Abner J. Mikva.

After President Jimmy Carter appointed Mikva to the D.C. Circuit, Mikva would rely on Garland when hiring law clerks.

At Harvard, Garland wrote news articles and theater reviews for the Harvard Crimson, and was a resident of Quincy House.

Garland graduated from Harvard in 1974 with an Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Garland then attended Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Law Review.

Garland ran for the presidency of the Law Review but lost to Susan Estrich, so he served as an articles editor instead.

As an articles editor, Garland assigned himself to edit a submission by U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan on the topic of the role of state constitutions in safeguarding individual rights.

This correspondence with Brennan later contributed to his winning a clerkship with the justice.

Garland graduated from Harvard Law in 1977 with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude.

After graduating from law school, Garland spent two years as a judicial law clerk, first for Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York City) from 1977 to 1978 and then for Justice William J. Brennan Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1978 to 1979.

After his clerkships, Garland spent two years as a special assistant to U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti.

After the Carter administration ended in 1981, Garland entered private practice at the law firm Arnold & Porter.

He previously served as a U.S. circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1997 to 2021.

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.

In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Republican-led U.S. Senate effectively blocked Garland's appointment.

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 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.