Attorney General Merrick Garland wants to put civil rights at the forefront of his Justice Department agenda.
In his first interview since becoming the country’s top law enforcement official last month, Garland told ABC News he aims to seize the “opportunity to do some very important things,” including pushing for police reform following several high-profile cases in which black people have died in police custody and changes to the criminal justice system.
“Look, racism is an American problem,” Garland said on Monday. “It’s plain to me that there has been and remains discrimination against African Americans and other communities of color and other ethnic minorities. I think it’s reflected in discrimination in housing and employment and the justice system. … We do not yet have equal justice under law.”
GARLAND RESCINDS TRUMP-ERA ORDER LIMITING CONSENT DECREES IN POLICE INVESTIGATIONS
A resurgent national reckoning on race began last week after Daunte Wright, a black man, died after a white police officer fired her gun instead of her Taser in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. This happened less than 10 miles away from the location of the trial of Derek Chauvin, a white ex-officer who is being charged with third-degree murder, second-degree murder, and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Chauvin pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Friday, Garland nixed the Trump administration’s order limiting consent decrees that help hold police departments accountable for misconduct. The Justice Department can use consent decrees with local jurisdictions to avoid litigation on a variety of issues, including policing, education, and voting rights.
Garland also talked about combating “domestic violent extremism,” citing his experience working on the Justice Department investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing at a federal building in 1995.
“This is a moment where it’s important, you know, to come to a place like this,” said Garland, who appeared at a ceremony on Monday at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. “The kind of devastation that happened here is — the product of the same kind of hatred that led to the bombing in Oklahoma City.”
Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran, planted the bomb with co-conspirator Terry Nichols out of disdain for the federal government, and the explosion is considered one of the worst domestic terror attacks in U.S. history, killing 168 people. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 1991, while Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.
Garland said he wants to help the Biden administration address gun violence by helping to put more safeguards into gun ownership, including helping to create “model red-flag laws,” which allow courts to remove guns temporarily from people deemed dangerous by a judge, that states could use to make their own.
Garland, who previously was a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, touched on a bitter moment from his past when he was asked about when his 2016 Supreme Court nomination was snubbed by Senate Republicans, who argued that the 2016 election’s winner should decide who would fill the vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
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“I look forward,” Garland said. “I now have the opportunity to do some very important things. I have the opportunity now to lead a Justice Department in pursuit of civil rights. I have a chance to lead a Justice Department in pursuit of the rule of law and ensuring the independence of the department and its independence, particularly, from any kind of partisan influence in the way we bring investigations or prosecutions.”
