Chief Justice Tabs Garland for Judicial Conference Chair

John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, has chosen Merrick Garland as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, according to a U.S. court announcement.

The committee is the "senior executive arm" of the judicial conference, a 26-member policy-making body for the federal court system, and it consists of the chief judges of the 13 courts of appeals, a district judge from each of the 12 circuits, and the chief judge of the Court of International Trade, according to the announcement.

The Judicial Conference meets twice a year to discuss administrative and policy issues related to the court system.

Garland was President Barack Obama's choice for the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The Senate did not give Garland a hearing for the job, and he returned to his appeals court position.

Judge David S. Tatel, a appeals court colleague of Garland's, praised Garland in The New York Times in February. "He's fully engaged and he's back to being a really good chief judge," Tatel said.

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