(C) Common Dreams
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Goodbye, Merrick Garland. Hello, Jamie Raskin. [1]

['Aaron Regunberg', 'Paige Oamek', 'Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling', 'Jason Linkins', 'Greg Sargent', 'Thom Hartmann', 'Michael Tomasky']

Date: 2024-08-30  

It’s never a great idea to count your chickens before they hatch. But it’s understandable that Democrats are talking openly about who might succeed Garland, given how disastrous his tenure has been. And I have one exceptional Democrat in mind whose name didn’t make it into Politico’s report.



There have been two massive flaws in Garland’s approach to leading the Department of Justice. First, as The Nation’s Elie Mystal pointed out in February, he has acted more like a judge than an advocate and prosecutor. Instead of fighting like hell on important issues like state abortion bans, he’s preemptively thrown in the towel on any case that looked likely to get overturned by a higher court. And in some areas, he’s taken stances in opposition to the administration’s policies. For example, though Biden pledged to “strategically support ongoing plaintiff-driven climate litigation against polluters,” Garland has refused to initiate an investigation of Big Oil—despite multiple requests from congressional Democrats that he do so. In fact, he even escalated efforts by Trump’s DOJ to quash a landmark youth climate case.



Even worse, Garland has consistently prioritized his own personal desire to look apolitical over his duty to, as the DOJ seal requires, “prosecute on behalf of justice.” The most obvious example is the DOJ’s catastrophic handling of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Garland’s failure to immediately investigate and prosecute Trump’s electoral interference has quite literally endangered our republic, as has his refusal to seek accountability for the many members of Congress who engaged in and supported the Jan. 6 insurrection. With these decisions—as with many of his other attempts to appear apolitical, such as his appointment of Republican hack David Hur to investigate Biden—Garland has actually produced extremely political ends. After all, what’s more political than slow-walking the prosecution of public officials who attempted to subvert our democracy?



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[1] Url: https://newrepublic.com/article/185344/kamala-harris-attorney-general-jamie-raskin-best-choice

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