Brad Garcia

Bradley Nelson Garcia (born 1986) is an American lawyer who serves as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was an official at the United States Department of Justice from 2022 to 2023.

Garcia was born in 1986 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts in international studies and economics, where he also was president of the university's chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. Garcia then attended Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated in 2011 with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude.

After law school, Garcia was a law clerk for Judge Thomas B. Griffith of the D.C. Circuit from 2011 to 2012 and for Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court from 2012 to 2013.

After his clerkships, Garcia was in private practice at the law firm O'Melveny & Myers from 2013 to 2022, becoming a partner in 2020. Garcia practiced appellate litigation with a client list that included Google, Warner Bros., and the Ford Motor Company. Garcia argued more than a dozen times before federal and state appeals courts, including before the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2021 immigration case, United States v. Palomar-Santiago. In February 2022, he joined the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, where he was a deputy assistant attorney general. He left in 2023 when he became a federal judge.

Notable cases

Garcia was part of the legal team representing El Paso County, Texas, in a suit challenging the diversion of U.S. Department of Defense funds to build a border wall.

In 2019, Garcia represented a man seeking better mental health treatment in a Pennsylvania prison. A unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled in favor of the prisoner.

In 2019, Garcia was co-counsel for Jason Daniel Sims, who pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Sims was sentenced as an armed career criminal, and he appealed. The Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA") imposes a mandatory fifteen-year minimum sentence on a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition who has three or more previous convictions for violent felonies or serious drug offenses. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). The district court designated Sims an armed career criminal based on four convictions: two Arkansas residential burglaries and two serious drug offenses. Sims appealed, arguing that his previous Arkansas burglary convictions do not qualify as violent felonies and that he therefore lacks the three or more convictions necessary to qualify as an armed career criminal.

In 2020, Garcia was the counsel of record in June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo, challenging Louisiana's law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

In 2022, Garcia was co-counsel for Bel Air Auto Auction, Inc. in their lawsuit against Great Northern Insurance Company. Bel Air's claims stemmed from Great Northern's denial of insurance benefits Bel Air asserts Great Northern owed it to cover business loss Bel Air incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Federal judicial service

On June 15, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Garcia to serve as a United States circuit judge for the District of Columbia Circuit. President Biden nominated Garcia to the seat to be vacated by Judge Judith W. Rogers, who subsequently assumed senior status on September 1, 2022. On July 27, 2022, a hearing on his nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his confirmation hearing, Republican senators questioned him on cases that he was involved with that dealt with gun rights and abortion access. On September 15, 2022, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On January 3, 2023, his nomination was returned to the president under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate; he was renominated later the same day. On February 2, 2023, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On May 9, 2023, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture on his nomination. On May 11, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 54–41 vote. On May 15, 2023, his nomination was confirmed by a 53–40 vote. He received his judicial commission on May 16, 2023. Garcia is the first Latino to serve as a judge on the D.C. Circuit.