The editors of the Wall Street Journal approve of Joe Biden’s choice for Attorney General:
Joe Biden promised to lower the temperature of America’s partisan hothouse, but some of his nominations have not lived up to that promise. One that does is his selection of Merrick Garland as Attorney General, perhaps now the most important cabinet post for domestic politics.
Public confidence in the Department of Justice has been severely damaged in recent years, not least the last four, as it became clear that President Trump’s partisan adversaries manipulated the FBI and Justice Department to try to handicap his Administration. Mr. Trump toward the end of his term also increasingly demanded that the Justice Department be weaponized in reverse. Attorney General Bill Barr refused and did his best to depoliticize prosecutorial decisions.
The Biden Administration will face pressure from the left to pursue Republicans who worked in the Trump Administration, banana-republic style, along the lines Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for in her presidential campaign. Vice President Kamala Harris said in 2019 she would have “no choice†but to prosecute Mr. Trump for obstruction of justice if elected President.
But Mr. Garland, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judge whom President Obama unsuccessfully nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016, is unlikely to have signed up for a job of political recrimination. For more than two decades he has been a mainstream center-left judge with a calm temperament and no demonstrated interest in settling scores or legal “Resistance.†In his remarks Thursday, Mr. Garland quoted Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson who said prosecutors should serve “the law and not factional purposes.â€
At least since 1961 Attorneys General have served as the enforcers for the administrations they serve. Not as in “law enforcement enforcers” but as in gangland enforcers. For all I know that goes right back to the beginnings of the republic although I have never heard of such a role for Edmund Randolph, Washington’s AG. Perhaps it’s related to the increasing role of partisanship.
All signs suggest that Merrick Garland is not suited for such a role and IMO that is an extremely healthy development. He is well-suited to oversee a reorientation of the Department of Justice in the direction of its legitimate role. Housecleaning is much in order there.
