
US President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday nominated Merrick Garland to be US attorney general. Garland is a centrist judge that Republicans denied a seat on the Supreme Court five years ago.
Garland is currently a judge on the Washington federal appeals court and has a record of being a moderate liberal. Garland is not aligned with either political party.
In 2016, the Senate Republicans blocked his nomination to the high court by then-president Barack Obama for eight months.
The president-elect's transition team in a statement on Thursday Biden introduced Garland and other key picks for the Justice Department via Twitter post.
The 68-year-old Garland has a prolific career as a private-sector lawyer and a federal prosecutor.
Merrick's long career goes back to 1993 when he was named deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice, handling important national security cases including the Oklahoma City and Atlanta Olympics bombings.
In 1997, president Bill Clinton named him to the Washington appeals court, and he received broad support from Democratic and Republican senators in his confirmation.
He went on to become the chief judge of that court in 2013 and, in March 2016, was picked by Obama to fill a seat on the Supreme Court after Antonin Scalia died.
His nomination as attorney general is likely to easily pass the Senate, which is to come under narrow Democratic Party control. He is likely to garner Republican support as well.
(Inputs from AFP)