Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama died on the grounds of rule when Republicans refused to take him on. Instead, the seat was filled by Judge Alan Neil Gorsuch. Garland Consolidation Award: Become President Joe Biden’s Attorney General. However, within a short nine months, he was proven not only unfit to sit in court but unfit to serve as a public prosecutor. In fact, his behavior indicates that he is ineligible for any federal position.
Garland’s nomination to the court was always inappropriate. Libertarians thought his record was dangerously authoritarian. The trustees of the estate of the late Justice William Brennan, for whom Garland had written, inexplicably closed the records regarding Garland’s time in court. And although Garland was described as a “moderate,” a straight shooter who could sail to easy assertion, he did not please the Democratic left nor the Republican center.
But what Garland showed as AG is a different kind of deficit, a deficit in character and integrity. As Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark) told Garland at hearings this week, “Thank God you’re not on the Supreme Court.”
The hearings included Garland’s inexplicable decision to target federal law enforcement resources for parents who speak out against critical race theory and unpopular transgender policies at school board meetings. In response to a letter from the left-leaning National School Board Association, which described those meetings in obscene language but little evidence of any real threats, Garland ordered the FBI and the Department of Justice to act.
There was no justification for Garland’s move, which was political bullying at its worst. The disturbance in these meetings mostly included people screaming and talking away, with occasional quarrels. (One arrest, at a notorious school board meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia, involved the father of a girl who had been raped by a boy in a bathrobe in the bathroom—a rape the school board tried to cover up. The boy has since been convicted.)
None of the supposed threats raised a federal issue, despite now-familiar allegations of “domestic terrorism,” which in today’s Democratic lexicon simply means “opposition to our policies.” And if there is any violence, there is no reason to believe that local law enforcement cannot handle it.
But enforcement of federal laws was not the goal. It was intimidating political opponents. That didn’t work, in part because the politicized Department of Justice and the FBI have become a national laughingstock for their behavior in the past few years.
Parents across the country continue to resist dangerous and unpopular policies on race and gender pushed by left-wing activists, and even the NSBA has faced such a backlash that it has been forced to back off. With state and local school boards across the country rescinding their membership in the association, the group has publicly retracted its message.
However, Garland did not retract his statement, even though he pretended at the hearings that he cared about First Amendment rights of people. Unmoved, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) called for Garland’s resignation. “I’ve armed the FBI and the Department of Justice,” Hawley said. “It’s a mistake. It’s unprecedented, as far as I know, in the history of this country.”
Garland’s sweet response was that he merely offered help, if necessary, to local law enforcement, but no one had any sense to think so. His message was in fact unprecedented, and it was clearly intended to intimidate opponents and support Democrats’ efforts to label every serious political opposition some kind of security threat.
Reports from The Washington Free Beacon revealed that the Biden White House was speaking to the National School Boards Association before sending its letter, raising questions about collusion between the administration and outside “activists.”
as Karol Markovic booksGarland and the Biden administration have taken sides in the war on parents, joining people like former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe who believe that parents should not have the right to control their children’s education.
Garland’s ruthlessness and partisanship show here that he is unfit for the Supreme Court. And while attorney generals aren’t supposed to be completely nonpartisan—JFK appointed his brother Robert to the AG position, after all—they have be It is meant to be ethical and committed to justice. Garland has shown that he is not and therefore does not deserve this job either. He should leave.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is the founder of the blog InstaPundit.com.
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