Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III

[spanone]

In 1986, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship by Reagan. The nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which refused by a 9-9 vote<3> to let the nomination come to the Senate floor for a vote. Sessions' opponents accused him of "gross insensitivity” on racial issues.<2><4> Sessions made a variety of comments that opponents pointed to, including remarks that he thought that the Ku Klux Klan was not so bad until he found out that some of them smoked marijuana.<2><4> Sessions also had once labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) "un-American," "Communist-inspired," and had said that they "forced civil rights down the throats of people." At his confirmation hearings, Sessions said that the groups could be un-American when "they involve themselves in un-American positions" in foreign policy.<4><4> Sessions claimed that the remarks had been made in jest.<2><4> One of those voting against him was Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.
Sessions was quoted then as saying that the Senate on occasion had been insensitive to the rights and reputation of nominees.<3> After joining the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions remarked that his presence there, alongside several of the members who voted against him, was a “great irony.”<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions



Sessions Takes Specter's Judiciary Post

Senate Republicans yesterday took the first steps in preparing to challenge President Obama's eventual nominee for the Supreme Court, selecting as their point man for confirmation hearings a backbench Alabama conservative whose own 1986 nomination to the federal courts turned into a racially tinged firestorm.

Sessions will take center stage in efforts to test Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice David H. Souter at a time when Republicans have seen their ranks in the Senate decimated and the party lacks an obvious spokesman on legal matters.

Sen. Jeff Sessions was named the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a key perch that was left vacant last week after Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) switched parties. Sessions will take center stage in efforts to test Obama's choice to succeed retiring Justice David H. Souter at a time when Republicans have seen their ranks in the Senate decimated and the party lacks an obvious spokesman on legal matters.

"The nominee needs to be given a fair evaluation. . . . I don't mind tough questioning of a nominee. I support that," Sessions told reporters yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/04/AR2009050403624.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[Olney Blue]

1. Is this a test to see if you can make me quit DU?

[malaise]

2. Just heard Rachel on this racist piece of crap

That's all they have left

[spanone]

8. controversies re: wilipedia

Sessions had unsuccessfully prosecuted three civil rights workers (including Albert Turner, a former aide to Martin Luther King, Jr), on a case of election fraud for the 1984 election. Sessions spent hours interrogating black voters in predominantly black counties, finding 14 allegedly tampered ballots out of approximately 1.7 million ballots cast. The three civil rights workers were acquitted after four hours of jury deliberation.<4>

On September 9, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Sessions called his former law professor, Harold Apolinsky, co-author of Sessions' legislation repealing the federal estate tax, which had lost momentum in Congress, and left a voicemail: " Jon Kyl and I were talking about the estate tax. If we knew anybody that owned a business that lost life in the storm, that would be something we could push back with."<12>

Sessions was one of only nine opponents of Senator John McCain's anti-torture amendment. Sessions supports Vice President Dick Cheney's proposal to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from any ban on the use of torture.<13>

Sessions has been opposed to parts of the Voting Rights Act, which he described as a "piece of intrusive legislation."<4> In 2006 he was in favor of letting it expire, and also said that Congress should consider if it was needed in some northern cities and states.<14> He later voted in favor of extending it.<15><16>

Sessions has advocated the extension of FISA legislation to legalize the Bush Administration's wiretapping techniques. He compared worries about government overreach to "two dramatic errors some years ago in a situation just like this, on emotion driven by our civil libertarian friends," specifically the lack of sharing of information between the FBI and the CIA as well as prohibitions on obtaining intelligence from "dangerous" sources. Sessions was indirectly criticized for this phrasing by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who replied " 'The civil libertarians among us'—and then he listed all the bad things he thinks the civil libertarians among us have done. I hope every one of us—every one of us in this Chamber—supports the civil liberties of the United States of America because if you don't, you don't believe in the Constitution."<17>

Sessions has been one of the most vocal critics of the reauthorization of PEPFAR in 2008. On July 14, when the bill went to debate, Sessions prepared an amendment that would allow the so-called "Helms Amendment" banning HIV-positive patients from entering the United States to be maintained, a ban that the bill would repeal. He is also opposed to the current price tag of $50 billion over 5 years.<18>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. Just a guess

He wasn't named after our third President, was he?

[Stinky The Clown]

4. When he start speaking English?

[stevedeshazer]

5. At least he has a cool name. Like that doesn't suggest "descendant of slave owner".

[Vickers]

6. If he was any whiter

he would radiate Pat Boone records.

[girl gone mad]

7. At least his parents were nice enough..

to saddle him with a douchebaggy name so that people have proper advanced warning.

[spanone]

9. we get arlen specter and a shitload more of this imbicile