Meet Merrick Garland, Obama's Supreme Court Pick

BY elo Frank

In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, Merrick Garland said goodbye to his wife and young daughters and flew out to the scene of the worst act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil.

As a supervisor with the Justice Department in 1995, Garland's job was to help put away accused bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. The voluminous investigation required that each scrap of evidence be correctly cataloged — and ensured that those behind the brutal deaths of 168 people, mostly young children, would be brought to justice.

"Perhaps most important is the way he did it," President Barack Obama said Wednesday in recounting Garland's efforts. Obama stood with Garland at the White House as he announced the veteran federal appeals judge as his pick to replace Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

President Obama and Supreme Court Justice nominee Merrick Garland speak in the Rose Garden on Wednesday.

"When people offered to turn over evidence voluntarily, he refused," Obama continued, "taking the harder route of obtaining the proper subpoenas instead — because Merrick would take no chances that someone who murdered innocent Americans might go free on a technicality."

But the president said it was a simple gesture of Garland's that also showed a human side.

"Everywhere he went, he carried with him in his briefcase the program from the memorial service with each of the victims' names inside — a constant searing reminder of why he had to succeed," Obama said.