Skip to main content
Friday, November 13, 2026Nov 13
Subscribe
All Sections
Search
More

Supreme Court nominee formed lasting bonds at Harvard

FILE - In this March 17, 2016, file photo, Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. From his first days at Harvard, Garland's classmates pegged him as a star. Smartest guy in the room, self-confident, easy-going and thoughtful are some of the compliments they still pay him 40 years later. For Garland, President Barack Obama's choice to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the bonds formed at Harvard College and Harvard Law School have stayed with him and come into play during a career in private practice, as a prosecutor and on the bench. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this March 17, 2016, file photo, Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. From his first days at Harvard, Garland's classmates pegged him as a star. Smartest guy in the room, self-confident, easy-going and thoughtful are some of the compliments they still pay him 40 years later. For Garland, President Barack Obama's choice to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the bonds formed at Harvard College and Harvard Law School have stayed with him and come into play during a career in private practice, as a prosecutor and on the bench. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) FILE - In this March 17, 2016, file photo, Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. From his first days at Harvard, Garland's classmates pegged him as a star. Smartest guy in the room, self-confident, easy-going and thoughtful are some of the compliments they still pay him 40 years later. For Garland, President Barack Obama's choice to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the bonds formed at Harvard College and Harvard Law School have stayed with him and come into play during a career in private practice, as a prosecutor and on the bench. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

By Associated Press 5 min read

BOSTON (AP) – From his first days at Harvard, Merrick Garland’s classmates pegged him as a star. Smartest guy in the room, self-confident, easygoing and thoughtful are some of the compliments they still pay him 40 years later.

For Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, the bonds formed at Harvard College and Harvard Law School have stayed with him and come into play during a career in private practice, as a prosecutor and on the bench.

Classmates said Garland followed a straight and narrow path, even as a young man during a tumultuous time marked by Watergate and protests over the Vietnam War. Every move he made, even back then, seems to have been designed for an unblemished track to success.

“This is something he has modestly prepared himself for his whole career,” said Elliot Gerson, a friend from his Harvard undergraduate days who now oversees the U.S. Rhodes Scholarships.

Garland graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1974 and Harvard Law School in 1977, helping to pay for his education by working summers as a shoe-store clerk and selling his comic book collection. Since then he’s kept strong ties, teaching antitrust law, serving on the Board of Overseers and participating in moot court for law students.