Senator Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren):
Jeff Sessions is so dangerous that a Republican-controlled Senate rejected his nomination to a federal judgeship 30 years ago.
Rejected for accusations of racism, which raises the question of how he can be approved for attorney general of the United States, the country’s “top cop.”
I don’t recall the hearings or the testimony. From the article linked above it appears Sessions is mainly guilty of right-wing politics, including taking a hard line on immigration. Not exactly a crime, nor a disqualifier for the office of AG.
Sticking out like a throbbing sore thumb, however, is his opposition to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sessions (The Huffingont Post):
“It is intrusive. The Supreme Court on more than one occasion has described it legally as an intrusive act, because you’re only focused on a certain number of states,” Sessions said of the act in response to a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). “Normally when Congress passes law it applies to the whole country. So it’s a very unusual thing for a law to be passed that targets only a few states, but they had a factual basis.”
Sessions added that the act “changed the whole course of history,” mainly in the South.
(Emphasis mine.)
Yes, it is intrusive. It needed to be so. The Voting Rights Act’s purpose is guaranteeing access to the polls for voters long denied it on the basis of poll taxes, literacy tests, and other cocked-up means of discriminating against them in the Jim Crow South. It was a cornerstone of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. Intrusive measures weren’t required in other states where, despite existing prejudice against non-white citizens, everyone had unfettered access to the polls.
On the basis of his own words about the Voting Rights Act, Jeff Sessions is wrong for the office of attorney general of the United States.
#Trump #GOP #fraud #Jeff #Sessions #Voitng #Rights #Act #1965 #discrimination #Elizabeth #Warren
A Random Stroll 