[1] Prior to joining the bench, McFarland was a Scioto County assistant prosecutor and acted as special counsel for the Ohio Attorney General.

President Trump nominated McFarland to the seat vacated by Judge Thomas M. Rose, who assumed senior status on June 30, 2017.

[3] On January 3, 2019, his nomination was returned to the president under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of the United States Senate.

[10] In July 2022, McFarland ruled[11] that the U.S. Air Force's mandate of COVID-19 vaccinations for its members violated the First Amendment's free exercise clause.

Not long after McFarland's ruling and the appellate decision upholding it, the U.S. Department of Defense rescinded the mandate for all troops.