Pencil in hand, Chief Judge Merrick Garland obsesses over every word and punctuation mark in his written opinions. He doesn’t approach cases with “gut assumptions” about the outcome. And after oral arguments, he sometimes asks his law clerks if he was too hard on the lawyers.
The NLJ over several weeks spoke with more than 40 of Garland’s former law clerks about life in his chambers. And we crunched numbers on all former and current Garland clerks, looking at where the 75 lawyers attended law school and where they’ve worked since.
