Garland AG bid moves forward

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to recommend that the full Senate confirm Merrick Garland as attorney general, moving forward with what is expected to be a bipartisan confirmation.

The committee voted 15-7 to advance Garland’s nomination, with four Republicans — John Cornyn of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — joining all 11 Democrats in favor of it.

Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., and the committee’s chairman, said Monday that Garland was “dedicated to public service and advancing values that are vital to the Justice Department’s functioning: integrity, independence, fidelity to the rule of law and commitment to equal justice for all.”

Current and former department officials have expressed hope that Garland, 68, can put four years of partisan rancor behind the Justice Department and lift up a demoralized workforce at a time when the country faces significant domestic extremist threats and a national reckoning over civil rights. Garland has vowed to restore the department’s reputation for fairness and honor its mission to bring equal justice under the law.

The department has been recovering from four years of attacks by former President Donald Trump, who pushed his attorneys general to serve his political and personal interests. He lavishly praised them when he felt they had done his bidding, particularly William Barr, who helped blunt the most serious findings of the Russia investigation and undo charges brought against Trump’s allies.

But a majority of Republicans on the committee voted against Garland’s nomination, including Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Lee of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.