Merrick Garland

“Everybody, I think, who hopes to become a judge would aspire to be able to write as well as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. None are going to be able to attain that.”

“I think there is no greater job anybody can have than having been a prosecutor.”

“The great joy of being a prosecutor is that you don't take whatever case walks in the door. You evaluate the case; you make your best judgement. You only go forward if you believe that the defendant is guilty.”

“As my parents taught me, by both words and deeds, a life of public services is as much a gift to the person who serves as it is to those he's serving.”

“The obligation of the judge in the circuit is to follow the previous decisions in the circuit unless those decisions are overruled by an en bloc panel of the court.”

“People must be confident that a judge's decisions are determined by the law and only the law. He must be faithful to the Constitution and statutes passed by Congress. Fidelity to the Constitution and the law has been the cornerstone of my life and the hallmark of the kind of judge I have tried to be.”

“It strains credulity to suggest that an agency charged with gathering intelligence affecting the national security does not have an 'intelligence interest' in drone strikes, even if that agency does not operate the drones itself.”

“Transparency in government, no less than transparency in choosing government, remains a vital national interest in a democracy.”

“For me, there can be no higher public service than serving as a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

“They tell you in Washington that if you want a friend, get a dog. That is not true. Get a family. This is a hard place to be.”

“My grandparents left the Pale of Settlement at the border of western Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, fleeing anti-Semitism and hoping to make a better life for their children in America.”