Democrats are wondering what’s going on at the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland, write the Daily Beast’s Sam Brodey and Scott Bixby: “While they have largely praised Garland’s first steps on key issues like voting rights, the attorney general has also presided over a series of decisions that have lawmakers frustrated or downright angry. ‘I am very concerned by what I had hoped would be a departure from some of the worst behaviors of the Trump administration,’ said Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), a House Judiciary member, who mentioned a number of issues Garland has been weak on in the eyes of progressives. Among those continued Trump policies, the DOJ has kept seizing land near the southern border that would be necessary to construct more of the border wall. It has defended in court a Trump-era posture of denying green cards to certain immigrants living legally in the U.S. And the Justice Department has stood behind Trump-era policies friendly to the fossil fuel industry. …. While virtually all Democratic lawmakers have been inclined to give Garland the benefit of the doubt, several key figures in the party are signaling that their patience is wearing thin. ‘The Department of Justice has a very long to-do list,’ said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). ‘I would strongly urge the Department to prioritize the civil rights work, voting protection, antitrust, and not the initiatives begun during the Trump era that undermine justice in this country.’”
