Wednesday’s attack on Congress demonstrated the importance of the rule of law, according to Merrick Garland, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Department of Justice as attorney general.
“As everyone who watched yesterday’s events in Washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just a turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy,” Garland said on Thursday.
Garland offered veiled criticism of President Trump as he defined the legal concept, one day after Trump’s supporters swarmed the Capitol building. Their actions delayed the congressional certification of the 2020 election, and a woman was killed during the unrest.
“These principles, the enduring rule of law and making the promise of equal justice under law real, are the great principles upon which DOJ was founded,” he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Biden confirmed reports that he had settled on former President Barack Obama’s last, unsuccessful Supreme Court Justice nominee as his choice to become the country’s chief law enforcement officer. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to schedule a hearing or vote on Garland’s nomination in 2016, arguing that it was an election year.
Garland’s appointment to the Biden administration opens up a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Biden on Thursday promised to fill the vacancy without delay once he’s inaugurated on Jan. 20, with the help of the Senate Democrats’ majority in the chamber. Democrats will take control of the Senate once Sens.-elect Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff are sworn into office after their runoff wins in Georgia on Tuesday.
Prior to joining the judiciary in 1997, Garland was a top official at the DOJ. There, he led the investigations and prosecutions of the 1995 Oklahoma City and the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing perpetrators, as well as those of Ted Kaczynski, who is also known as the “Unabomber.”
“I have loved being a judge. But to serve as attorney general at this critical time, to lead the more than 113,000 dedicated men and women who work at the department, to ensure the rule of law, is a calling I am honored and eager to answer,” he said.
