US President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Merrick Garland, a federal court chief judge, as attorney general, media reports said on Wednesday.
Garland leads the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and was nominated by former President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court but Republicans, who controlled the Senate at the time, had blocked him.
As attorney general, Garland will be Biden’s top law enforcement official.
Garland will have to be confirmed by the Senate, which will not be difficult as Democrats are poised to take control of the chamber after the Georgia runoffs.
The selection of Garland will resonate with Democrats after Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell prevented him from even getting a confirmation hearing for the high court in 2016.
The move fills the last of the “big four” cabinet posts Biden had remaining, after earlier naming his choices for secretaries of defence, state and treasury.
Obama nominated Garland in March 2016 for the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Although Garland received bipartisan praise, Republicans argued that any nomination should wait until after the American public had a chance to vote, even though the presidential election was still eight months away.
Later, the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s choice for the seat, Neil Gorsuch.
{{/usCountry}}Later, the Senate confirmed President Donald Trump’s choice for the seat, Neil Gorsuch.
{{/usCountry}}When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September last year, Republicans abandoned their argument about election-year nominations, pushing through a confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett days before the November 3 election.
Garland, 68, is a veteran of the legal community and US justice department.
He first served in the department as a special assistant in President Jimmy Carter’s administration before going into private practice. He returned to the department for a brief stint in 1989 as an assistant US attorney.
In 1993, he became a deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s criminal division and then was promoted to be a top aide to the deputy attorney general.
Garland oversaw high-profile domestic terrorism prosecutions, including for bombings in Oklahoma City and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
President Bill Clinton nominated Garland to be a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and he was confirmed in 1997. He became chief judge of the panel, which has influence second only to the Supreme Court, in 2013.
Biden chose Garland after figures including former deputy attorney general Sally Yates, Democratic Senator Doug Jones and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick had been talked about as candidates for the position.
(With inputs from Agencies)