Sarah A. L. Merriam was sworn in as a Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on September 28, 2022.

Judge Merriam received a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1993. She began her legal education at the University of Connecticut School of Law, then transferred to Yale Law School after her first year and received her law degree from Yale in 2000. In 2018, Judge Merriam received an LLM in Judicial Studies from Duke Law School.

From 2007 through 2015, Judge Merriam served as an Assistant Federal Defender in the District of Connecticut, representing indigent criminal defendants and witnesses in federal court in all aspects of those cases, including appeals. Prior to becoming an Assistant Federal Defender, she served as an associate at the law firm of Cowdery, Ecker & Murphy in Hartford, Connecticut; as a law clerk to Judge Thomas J. Meskill of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals; and as a law clerk to Judge Alvin W. Thompson of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Judge Merriam served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Connecticut from April 3, 2015, through October 12, 2021, and as a United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut from October 12, 2021, through September 28, 2022.