(Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s attorney general nominee Merrick Garland will tell the Senate on Monday he plans to prioritize civil rights and combat domestic terror if confirmed as the top U.S. justice official, according to remarks released on Saturday.
The Justice Department’s mission to enforce the 1957 Civil Rights Act “remains urgent because we do not yet have equal justice,” said Garland, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled to begin Monday.
“Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment, and the criminal justice system; and bear the brunt of the harm caused by pandemic, pollution, and climate change,” he said.
Garland, 68, serves as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, one of 13 federal appeals courts. Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, nominated him to the Supreme Court in 2016, but the Republican-controlled Senate at the time refused to hold hearings on the nomination. Reuters News
