Calling Merrick Garland 'a special case,' retired justice recommended him for DC Circuit
Judge Merrick Garland.
Retired Supreme Court Justice William Brennan recommended Merrick Garland for a federal appellate judgeship in a 1995 letter to President Bill Clinton, according to a document released on Wednesday.
Brennan said in the letter that he had had more than 100 law clerks “and Merrick is one of the best,” the National Law Journal (sub. req.) and Politico report. Brennan said he would not usually inject himself into the judicial nomination process, “but Merrick is a special case.”
Brennan was recommending Garland for a nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Clinton did indeed nominate Garland, and he was confirmed in March 1997. Garland’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court has not been acted on.
Brennan’s letter was among hundreds of documents released by the Clinton Presidential Library in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Other Brennan law clerks included federal appeals judges Richard Posner, Marsha Berzon and the late Richard Arnold, according to Brennan biographer Stephen Wermiel, who spoke with the National Law Journal.
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