Merrick Garland finally speaks. His words were worth the wait. - The Washington Post

The Honorable Merrick Garland finally — at long last, after all these years — spoke.

But now he was in front of the committee as President Biden’s choice for attorney general, and he was being heard.

In a few words surrounding a singularly long and emotion-laden pause, he succinctly summed up his definition of justice, which is that it must be blind but it should not be heartless.

“The label racist is not one I would apply like that,” Garland said evenly — without a hint of are-you-a-dolt.

How the Oklahoma City bombing case prepared Merrick Garland to take on domestic terrorism.

As Democrats and Republicans posed their questions, the thrust of each side’s interrogation made clear the partisan split over what it means to put justice into practice.

For most of the Republicans on the committee, justice seemed wholly defined as punishment: why certain people deserve it, how harsh it can be, why it shouldn’t be even harsher and whether Hunter Biden will get his fair share of it.

The point was in posing the question itself, which was just another way of reiterating that justice for Hawley is the equivalent of boots on the ground, sirens blaring and guns drawn.

Would Garland rise to the ethical standard set by former attorney general William P.

For the Republicans, justice is not something that “rolls down like waters,” it’s something that comes down like a hammer.

Cory Booker (D-N.J.) aimed to make clear when he asked Garland whether he was familiar with a biblical reference to justice that advises to “act justly and to love mercy.” Much of Booker’s questioning centered around racism within the criminal justice system — the disproportionate arrests of minorities, lousy legal representation for the poor, sentencing imbalances and the issue that caused Kennedy such befuddlement, implicit bias.

“This is the highest, best use of my one set of skills,” Garland said.

“And so I want very much to be the kind of attorney general you’re saying I could be.”

But it’s not the definition of justice