1.2K Law Profs Slam Sessions as AG Nominee

Sessions was 'racially insensitive' in 1980s, hasn't changed: letter
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 4, 2017 10:44 AM CST
1.2K Law Profs Slam Sessions as AG Nominee
Sen. Jeff Sessions speaks to media at Trump Tower in November.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file)

Some 100 law professors in support of Sen. Jeff Sessions' nomination for attorney general appear to be in the minority. More than 1,200 law professors have sent a letter to Congress in an attempt to convince the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject the nomination, noting Sessions "will not fairly enforce our nation's laws and promote justice and equality," per the Washington Post. The letter mentions his support for a border wall, attempt to prosecute black civil rights activists for voter fraud in 1985, and "repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community" but focuses on the Senate's rejection of his nomination to a federal judgeship in 1986 after Sessions allegedly said the KKK was "okay until I found out they smoked pot," per USA Today.

A rep for Sessions says such claims are "tired, recycled, hyperbolic" and "have been thoroughly rebuked and discredited." A former chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights adds Sessions is "a man of great character and integrity with a commitment to fairness and equal justice under the law." But "nothing in Senator Sessions' public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge," states the letter, signed by professors from 176 law schools in 49 states. In a separate letter, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick—who represented the activists in the 1985 case—suggests Sessions' "regard for facts is secondary to political objectives," per Boston.com. (NAACP's president was just arrested at Sessions' office.)

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