About Merrick Garland
Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 86th United States attorney general from 2021 to 2025. 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, the U.S. Senate refused to hold a confirmation hearing after President Barack Obama nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. 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 United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 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, subsequent 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. During his tenure, Garland was criticized for the pace of the prosecution of President Donald Trump. Some observers, including Biden, assigned Garland some responsibility for the fact that none of the indictments obtained by special counsel Jack Smith went to trial before the November 2024 election in which Trump prevailed and won re-election to a second non-consecutive term leading to all charges against him being dismissed. After graduating from law school, Garland spent two years as a judicial law clerk, first for Judge Henry Friendly of the U.S. Garland won praise for his work on the case from the Republican governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating. Desiring to return to public service and do more trial work, in 1989 Garland became an assistant United States attorney in the U.S. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court; however, the U.S. Senate refused to hold a confirmation hearing.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.