Democrats are gearing up to grill the Alabama senator over his controversial immigration stance and views on racial issues during that hearing, which begins Tuesday. Call your senators (877-959-6082), and urge that they oppose Sessions as Attorney General of the United States. However, the senator has opposed the bipartisan push for broader criminal justice reform, as the Marshall Project points out. He also heard Sessions opine that ACLU and the NAACP “did more harm than good when they were trying to force civil rights down the throats of people who were trying to put problems behind them”.
Advertisement
Greg Griffin, a black Alabama judge who worked as a state attorney when Sessions was Alabama attorney general, said Sessions “always treated me with respect” and called him “one of the best bosses I ever had”. And that is another reason that Mr. Sessions can not be entrusted with the office of Attorney General. “Having him as attorney general would essentially tear down Martin Luther King Jr.’s greatest legacy”.
“There are some gaping holes and some grave questions … about his commitment to fair and even enforcement of the law”, said Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
In a time of expanding protests against the scourge of police brutality, Senator Sessions stands on opposite ground.
Sessions-sponsored bills and votes on juvenile justice, it says, are “extreme if not inhumane”.
In 1986, Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship was rejected by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.
The NAACP does not believe that an election where the incoming president lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes represents a mandate to overhaul the America of the Majority.
Separately, 100 black faith leaders released a letter on Monday opposing Sessions, arguing he is a “grave threat to the civil rights of the communities…[they] serve as faith leaders”. Some of the areas where Sessions as AG will have the chance to shape policy: defending the legality of overseas wars and drone strikes, surveillance and other intelligence matters, leak investigations and whistleblowers, FOIA cases, immigration, cyber, detainee and interrogation issues, counterespionage, and hate crimes. “[Sessions] has happily accepted awards from the most intensely anti-Muslim organizations and groups that spread the vile falsehood that Muslims can not be loyal Americans”.
“My son, US Army Captain Humayun Khan, was a living rebuke to such bigotry”, Khan wrote.
Senator: I don’t understand why Hillary Clinton was not prosecuted for those e-mails.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s new National Legal Director, David Cole, will testify at Sessions’ hearing on January 11 – an unprecedented move by the nonprofit organization, an ACLU spokesperson told TheBlaze Monday. “I do not think you would have a blanket refusal to consider that and if anybody is critical of you for that, I do not think that would be justified”. Mr. Sessions has confirmed their concerns and raised additional ones. On gay rights and police oversight, he wants the feds to step back.
Here are five things everyone should know about Sessions before lawmakers decide if he’s fit to lead the Department of Justice. Sessions will fail as exhausted, recycled, hyperbolic charges that have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited.
Advertisement
(CNN) As the Obama era comes to an end, many in the beleaguered law enforcement community are welcoming a change in federal leadership.
