Sarbanes was the longest-serving senator in the History of Maryland until he was surpassed by Barbara Mikulski by a single day when her term ended on January 3, 2017.

Born in Salisbury, Maryland, Sarbanes was a graduate of Princeton University, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School.

[4][5] A graduate of Wicomico High School in Salisbury, Maryland, Sarbanes attended Princeton University, where (like the younger Bill Bradley) he played basketball[6] and earned a bachelor's degree in 1954[7] from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs after completing a senior thesis titled "The Smith Act: A Denial of American Freedoms".

[11] After graduating in 1960, he clerked for Federal Judge Morris Ames Soper before entering private practice with two Baltimore law firms.

[10][12] In 2002, he was the United States Senate sponsor of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, which reformed federal securities laws in the wake of the 2002 accounting scandals.

[16] In spite of this, in May of that year, he voted in favor of approving a Reagan administration-backed $136.5 billion military authorization bill.

[18][19] On March 11, 2005, Sarbanes, the longest-serving senator in Maryland history, announced at a news conference his decision not to seek re-election in 2006.

[20] Colleagues of Sarbanes said that the reason for his retirement from the Senate was due to his annoyance with not having any leadership roles on committees.