Jeff Sessions in The Economist
On Civil Rights:
1986: Denied confirmation as federal judge
Expect Democrats to bring up Sessions's history of allegedly racist comments as a federal prosecutor in Alabama--comments which saw him denied confirmation as a federal judge in the 1980s.
The nomination sent news outlets scrambling to their archives to dig out transcripts of those fateful Senate judiciary committee hearings from 1986.
Senators heard a Justice Department official testify that Sessions, then US Attorney for the Southern district of Alabama, had suggested that a prominent white civil rights lawyer might justly be called "a disgrace to his race" for representing
black clients. Under questioning Sessions said that he did not recall making that comment, and could not understand why he would have made it, but did not deny his colleague's account.
Source: The Economist on 2017 Trump transition/confirmation hearings
Nov 18, 2016
On Civil Rights:
1986: Called NAACP a "pinko" organization that hates whites
Sessions' nomination sent news outlets scrambling to their archives to dig out transcripts of those fateful Senate judiciary committee hearings from 1986.
Asked whether he had called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a civil rights group, a "pinko" organisation that hates white people,
Sessions told his Senate inquisitors: "I am loose with my tongue on occasion, and I may have said something similar to that." He did deny the account of a black federal prosecutor who testified that
Sessions called him "boy" and chided him to be careful how he spoke to "white folks". Twenty years later Sessions is in a position to avenge that humiliation.
Source: The Economist on 2017 Trump transition/confirmation hearings
Nov 18, 2016
On Government Reform:
1986: Voting Rights Act of 1965 is "intrusive legislation"
Expect Democrats to bring up Sessions's role as attorney-general in overseeing voting rights, even after federal monitoring of state and local election rules has been sharply reduced by the Supreme Court. During his confirmation hearing back in 1986,
Sessions agreed that he had called the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) a "piece of intrusive legislation." By the time he became a senator his tone had greatly changed.
He voted to reauthorise the VRA and sponsored legislation to honour with the Congressional Gold Medal the black civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama, who endured racist violence at the hands of local police to promote the cause of voting.
In Senate hearings Sessions frequently said that there had been serious racial discrimination against blacks in the South.
Source: The Economist on 2017 Trump transition/confirmation hearings
Nov 18, 2016
On Government Reform:
The South has changed; no longer any need to monitor voting
Sessions sided with those conservatives who argued that the South had changed, making it unnecessary to maintain Section Five of the Voting Rights Act which obliged a long list of jurisdictions with a history of racism to seek federal "preclearance" for
any change to electoral laws, down to the location of polling places. In time the Supreme Court would come to agree with Sessions and colleagues, striking down Section Five.
Democrats and civil-rights groups charge that Republican-run state governments across the South responded with a spate of laws making it harder to vote. As a senator Sessions has opposed calls for Congress to step in and restore federal powers over
voting laws, saying in 2014: "To pass a law in the U.S. Congress that provides penalties only to some states and not to others can only be justified for the most extraordinary circumstances. And the justification no longer exists."
Source: The Economist on 2017 Trump transition/confirmation hearings
Nov 18, 2016
On Homeland Security:
Giving alleged terrorists criminal rights is "too soft"
In 2009 Mr Sessions called Eric Holder, attorney-general under Mr Obama, "'too soft" in his handling of terrorism, and accused him of helping America's enemies by releasing Bush-era legal memos about the use of harsh interrogation techniques.
In 2011 he wrote in the Washington Post that the Department of Justice was making a "dangerous" mistake by treating alleged terrorists as candidates for criminal prosecution, with the same legal rights to remain silent and be represented by a
not criminal prosecution--is the only way our country can detect and foil the next al-Qa'eda plot," wrote Mr Sessions.
Source: The Economist newsmagazine coverage of 2016 Trump transition
Nov 18, 2016
On Immigration:
Skeptic of H1-B visa scheme that recruits skilled foreigners
There are some 11 million migrants in America without the right legal papers--a number so large that many in the Senate, from both parties, believe that not all can possibly be deported, so that law-enforcement should focus on those guilty of serious
crimes and the government should offer a path to legal status for those who have built productive lives. Sessions disagrees. He has spent the last decade leading Senate opposition to bipartisan immigration reform bills, arguing that illegal immigration
depresses wages and takes jobs from out-of-work Americans. On legal migration, he is a sceptic of the H1-B visa scheme that helps companies recruit highly skilled foreigners, such as scientists or engineers, accusing wealthy business bosses, the
government, the national press and the "cosmopolitan set" of mocking the anxieties and needs of "everyday Americans." On the campaign trail Sessions has echoed Trump's focus on immigration as a menace to national security.
Source: The Economist newsmagazine coverage of 2016 Trump transition
Nov 18, 2016
On Immigration:
Protect our communities with commitment to deport aliens
On the campaign trail Sessions has echoed Trump's focus on immigration as a menace to national security. On the eve of the election he called for a president willing to enforce immigration laws, saying that "without a commitment to deport aliens who
violate our immigration laws, we lose our ability to protect our communities from criminal aliens, terrorism, and cartel-related crime and violence." As attorney-general it is safe to assume he will put intense pressure on so-called "sanctuary cities"--
mostly Democratic-run cities, including some of the country's largest, which typically instruct police officers or city officials not to ask people about their immigration status, and in some cases limit co-operation with federal immigration authorities.
Such cities call it vital for immigrants to feel able to report crimes to police or interact with social services and schools without fear, and will resist federal pressure to turn their municipal officers into de facto immigration agents.
Source: The Economist newsmagazine coverage of 2016 Trump transition
Nov 18, 2016
Page last updated: Sep 29, 2024