Prior to his appointment to the Clinton Administration in June, 1995, Garaufis served for nine years as counsel to Queens Borough President Claire Shulman in New York City.

[5] On October 5, 2011, Garaufis ruled that a court-appointed monitor would be installed to oversee the New York City Fire Department's efforts to hire and retain more minorities.

[8] On June 28, 2018, the Fire Department reported that forty-three percent of the nearly 2,300 top scorers on its most recent entrance exam were black or Hispanic.

[12] On May 11, 2017, Garaufis sentenced Bryant Neal Vinas to time served for providing material support for terrorism, giving the highly cooperative informant three months more in prison before beginning a life on probation.

[14] The Texas case sought to block the implementation of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and an expansion of DACA.

[16] On July 28, 2020, Chad Wolf, who served as Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, issued a memorandum stating new DACA applicants would not be accepted, and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two.

[18] Following the death of his first wife, writer and television producer Eleanor Prescott, Garaufis married nonprofit consultant Elizabeth Seidman in 2002 in Queens, New York.