Attorney General: Merrick B. Garland

Merrick Brian Garland was born on November 13, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois. He received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in 1974 from Harvard and his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1977. While at law school, Garland served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Garland clerked for Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1977 to 1978 and for Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1978 to 1979. From 1979 to 1981, he served as Special Assistant to the 73rd Attorney General of the United States, Benjamin R. Civiletti. Garland joined the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter in 1981 and became a partner in 1985. In 1986, he taught antitrust law at Harvard Law School. From 1989 to 1992, Garland was Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. After returning for a short time to private practice, Garland served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice from 1993 to 1994. From 1994 to 1997, he was Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General. In 1997, he was appointed a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and became Chief Judge in 2013. Garland served on the Harvard University Board of Overseers from 2003 to 2010 and was the board’s president in 2010. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated him as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Garland chaired the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2017 to 2020. 

He was appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., on March 11, 2021, and served until January 20, 2025.