A welcome return to Justice
In his upcoming Senate confirmation hearing for attorney general, Merrick Garland is almost certain to be asked about his thoughts on cases with distinct political aims, from the pending investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes to a potential investigation into the handling by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration of nursing home deaths to whether former President Donald Trump should be held criminally accountable for his role in inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Garland, a former Justice Department prosecutor who has been a federal appellate judge for the past two decades, should respond with a clear signal: The days of the nation’s top law enforcement kowtowing to political pressure is over.
President Biden said he selected Garland as a straight shooter who would restore the Justice Department’s independence at the top levels — and Garland’s prepared opening statement, released last weekend, suggested that is exactly what he would do. He said his confirmation would be “the culmination of a career I have dedicated to ensuring that the laws of our country are fairly and faithfully enforced, and that the rights of all Americans are protected.”
Garland’s record is of a consensusbuilding centrist who has earned the respect of law enforcement and civil rights groups alike. But he also has been around Washington enough to know that stellar credentials and commitment to fairness don’t always play in this polarized era. His 2016 nomination to
the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was squelched in the Senate when thenMajorityLeader Mitch McConnell refused to allow it to advance for eight months on the argument that voters should have a say in the lifetime appointment to succeed the late Antonin Scalia. McConnell then conveniently scrapped that principle last fall in rushing through the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
If confirmed, Garland would be taking the helm as the department pursues the prosecution of hundreds of rioters who stormed the Capitol as the House and Senate were in the process of certifying the Electoral College vote. The violent assault was a grim reminder of the everpresent threat of domestic terrorism in the U.S.
Garland addressed the danger posed by white supremacists in his opening remarks, noting that from 1995 to 1997 he “supervised the prosecution of the perpetrators of the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, who sought to spark a revolution that would topple the federal government.” But he emphasized that a focus on the threat of such terrorists is just a part of the department’s wideranging commitment to combat “environmental degradation and the abuse of market power, from fraud and corruption, from violent crime and cybercrime, and from drug trafficking and child exploitation.”
What that portfolio does not include is subservience to a president’s whims and grudges, which characterized former Attorney General Bill Barr’s sorry tenure under Trump. Barr at times acted as Trump’s appointed henchman, from buffering the impact of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation with a highly misleading “summary” of its findings to meddling in the Michael Flynn case to echoing Trump’s conspiracy theories about the prospect of widespread fraud from mailin voting.
Department morale plummeted during Barr’s reign, which ended with his abrupt resignation just before Trump left office. Barr had pledged during his confirmation hearing to make the Justice Department a place where “the rule of law, not politics, holds sway.” He failed.
Garland now has a chance to uphold that vital principle to not only restore department morale, but the confidence of the American people in the integrity of the system.