Merrick Garland Biography, Age, Height, Weight, Career, Education, Family, and Net Worth.

Who is Merrick Garland?

Merrick Garland is an American attorney, currently, serving as the 86th United States attorney general. In addition, he is also a jurist and he has been holding the position since March 2021.

Prior to being elected as the attorney general, he was serving as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where he served from 1997 to 2021. he was appointed in that position in March 2021 by President Joe Boden.

Career

Early Career

Soon after graduating from law school, he was employed as a judicial law clerk, for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He worked for Henry in a span of one year from 1977 to 1978. After that, he was shifted to Justice William Brennan at the US Supreme Court from 1978 to 1979. In 1979, he started serving as a special assistant to attorney general Benjamin Civiletti until 1981.

However, in 1981 the Carter administration ended and he moved to private practice. He was hired by Arnold Porter, where he mostly practices corporate litigation. As a result of his good work, he was made a partner in 1985.

In 1989, he became an Assistant US Attorney in the US attorney’s office for the District of Columbia. In that capacity, he represented the government in criminal cases ranging from drug trafficking to complex public corruption matters. In addition, he was one of the three key principal prosecutors who was handling the investigation into Washington, DC mayor Marion Barry’s possession of Cocaine.

In 1993 he was appointed by the Clinton government as the deputy attorney general in the criminal division of the United States Department of Justice. After one year Deputy Attorney General Jamie Forelock who was his mentor asked him to be her principal associate deputy attorney general.

In that capacity, his role included overseeing high-profile cases such as domestic terrorism cases. Some of these cases included the Oklahoma City bombing. In this case, he insisted on being transferred to Oklahoma City in the aftermath of the attack, so that he could conduct an investigation in preparation for prosecution.

How Old Is Merrick Garland?

Who are His Parents?

He was born in Chicago and grew up in northern Chicago as the son of Shirley, and Cyril Garland. Moreover, his mother was a director of volunteer services at Chicago’s Council for Jewish Elderly. On the other hand, his father worked as the head of Garland Advertising, a small business run out of the family home.

Does He Have Siblings?

At the moment, details about his siblings are still unknown.

Merrick Garland Education

He attended Nile West High School in Skokie, Illinois. He graduated from the institution in 1970. After that,  joined Harvard University where he was specializing in social studies. Despite him wanting to become a physician, he decided to pursue law where he joined Havard Law School and earned his JD.

Merrick Garland  Wife

He has been married to his lovely wife Lynn for over 3 decades now since 1987.

Merrick Garland Kids

The couple has two adult daughters, Rebecca and Jessica. In addition, both graduated from Yale University.

Chief Judge

He was appointed as Chief Judge of the DC Circuit on February 12, 2013. In May 2013, he announced that he was going to provide the public with a same-day audio recording of oral arguments in court. In addition, as a chief judge, he was an active member of the judicial conference of the United States.

Moreover, he was also part of the formulation of new rules to protect federal judicial branch employees from workplace harassment. After serving for seven years his tenure as a chief judge ended on February 11, 2020, and he was replaced by John Sri Srinivasan. However, he continued to serve as an active member of the court.

Retirement

He retired from federal judicial service on March 11, 2021, to accept an appointment as 5eh Attorney General of the United States.

Supreme Court nomination

In 2009 and 2010, he was considered the potential candidate to fill in the vacant left by Justice Antonin Scalia.

2009 and 2010 considerations

After Justice David announced, his retirement Galand was considered as one of nine finalists for the post, which ultimately went to Sonia Sotomayor, then a judge of the Second Circuit.

Following Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement announcement in April 2010, Garland was widely seen as a strong possibility for a nomination to the United States Supreme Court. Among others, President Obama interviewed Garland for the position.

Scalia vacancy and 2016 nomination

After the death of Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice on February 13, 2016. Republican Senate led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a statement that they would not accept any nominee brought forward by Barack Obama.

Garland was named as one of three judges on the President’s “shortlist” a week later (along with Judge Sri Srinivasan, also of the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Paul J. Watford of the Ninth Circuit). Obama had interviews with all three main candidates, as well as two more who were being considered.

Garland has the most federal court experience of any Supreme Court candidate in history, and he was the oldest Supreme Court nominee since Lewis F. Powell Jr. in 1971.
The American Bar Association’s (ABA) Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary unanimously assessed Garland as “well-qualified” (the committee’s highest grade) to serve on the Supreme Court.

Attorney General

Nomination

Biden nominated Merrick officially on January 20, shortly after taking office. During his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Garland promised to supervise rigorous prosecution of individuals who assaulted the United States Capitol and other domestic radicals, based on his expertise in prosecuting the Oklahoma City bombers.

Garland cited that the Biden administration would impose a moratorium on the use of the federal capital sentence. He also expressed misgivings regarding the death penalty due to the “near randomness or arbitrariness of its implementation.” Garland promised to defend equal justice under the law and to resurrect the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which had been dormant under the Trump administration. Moreover, he also assured us that the Department would remain independent under his leadership.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 15–7 to send Garland’s nomination to the Senate floor, and the Senate approved Garland’s nomination by a vote of 70–30 on March 10. On March 11, 2021, he was sworn in by Assistant Attorney General for Administration Lee Lofthus.

Tenure

During Garland’s time as Attorney General, the Justice Department focused on civil rights protections. In addition, he reversed a Trump administration policy (established by Jeff Sessions) that limited DOJ investigations into police department wrongdoing (“pattern-and-practice”) and limited the use of consent decrees to rehabilitate police agencies.

In May 2021, the Department of Justice appealed in part a decision by the District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson to make public the majority of a DOJ memo detailing former Attorney General Bill Barr’s legal reasoning for clearing President Trump of obstruction of justice in the Special Counsel investigation.

In response to state voting restrictions enacted following the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The Justice Department has vowed to increase its enforcement workforce for the protection of the right to vote. Moreover, the Department of Justice is suing the state of Georgia, saying that recently enacted voting restrictions targeted African Americans.

Merrick Garland Height

His height and body measurement are not known at the moment in case of any information we will update it as soon as possible.

Merrick Garland’s Net Worth

His net worth is estimated to be more than $ 10 million.

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