Senate Confirms Merrick Garland to Serve as Attorney General

The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee, D.C. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland, to serve as Attorney General.

Garland was confirmed as Attorney General of the Untied States with a bipartisan vote of 70-30.

Among the Republicans who supported Garland’s confirmation was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who stated his support for Garland last month.

Garland, who served as chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit until February 2020, gained notoriety in 2016 when former President Barack Obama nominated him to fill the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat in the Supreme Court of the United States. Garland failed to receive a hearing in the Republican-controlled Senate at the time.

During his February confirmation hearings in the Senate, Garland was grilled on topics like the death penalty and the Second Amendment. Garland also insisted Antifa’s attacks on the U.S. courthouse in Portland last year may not have been “domestic terrorism,” because unlike the Capitol riot, they took place at night when the court was not “in operation.”

Garland has also faced scrutiny for his unwillingness to say if he supports decriminalizing illegal immigration.