Jeff Sessions
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Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is the junior United States Senator from Alabama. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Early life
Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama. His father owned a general store and then a farm equipment dealership. Sessions grew up in the small town of Hybart. In 1964 he became an Eagle Scout. In his adult life, he became a recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America.After attending school in nearby Camden, Sessions studied at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1969. He was active in the Young Republicans and student body president there. [Profile of Jeff Sessions by CQ Press] Sessions received a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Alabama in 1973.
Sessions became a practicing attorney first in Russellville, and then in Mobile where he now lives. He was also an army reservist in the 1970s, achieving the rank of captain.
Political career
Following a two-year stint as Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama (1975-1977), Sessions was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the United States Attorney for Alabama's Southern District, a position he held for 12 years. In 1986, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship by Reagan. The nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which refused by a 10-8 vote Sarah Wildman, [Closed Sessions: The Senator Who's Worse than Lott], The New Republic, December 30, 2002 to let the nomination come to the Senate floor for a vote. Sessions' opponents accused him of "gross insensitivity” on racial issues. One of those voting against him was Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.Sessions was elected Alabama Attorney General in November 1994. In 1996, Sessions won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, after a runoff, and then defeated Democrat Roger Bedford, 52%-46% in the November general election. He succeeded Heflin, who had retired after 18 years in the Senate.
Sessions was only the second freshman Republican Senator from Alabama since the Reconstruction, and gave Alabama two Republican senators, also a first since the Reconstruction. Sessions was easily reelected in 2002 becoming the first (or second, if one counts his colleague Richard Shelby, who switched from Democrat to Republican in 1994) Republican reelected to the Senate from Alabama.
Political positions
Sessions is one of the most conservative members of either house of Congress, backing conservative Republican stances on foreign affairs, taxes, and social policy. He opposes abortion, and is wary of illegal immigration. Sessions serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is its only member to have unsuccessfully faced the Committee before becoming a senator. Sessions was a strong supporter of the "nuclear option," a tactic favored by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to stop filibusters of judicial nominees. When 14 Senators led by Republican John McCain of Arizona and Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska struck a deal to avert the option, Sessions was one of the agreement's most severe critics.Sessions has been active in particular as an advocate for the armed services. On September 25, 2005, he spoke at a rally attended by 400 people in Washington, D.C. in favor of the war in Iraq. It was held in opposition to an anti-war protest held the day before that was attended by 100,000 people. Sessions spoke of the anti-war protestors, saying "The group who spoke here the other day did not represent the American ideals of freedom, liberty and spreading that around the world. I frankly don't know what they represent, other than to blame America first."Elisabeth Goodridge, ["Praise, Anger at Pro-War Rally in D.C."], Associated Press, September 25, 2005
On October 5, 2005, he voted against a bill restricting treatment of terrorist suspects.
Sessions' has taken a strong stand against any form of citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Controversies
| The [Neutral point of view>neutrality] of this section is [NPOV disputedisputed]. Please see the discussion on the [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 predominately black counties, finding only 14 allegedly tampered ballots out of the more than 1.7 million ballots cast. The three civil rights workers were acquitted after four hours of jury deliberation. During his nomination to federal court, it was revealed that Sessions 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. 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: "[Arizona Sen.] 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."Massimo Calabresi, ["Looking for a Corpse to Make a Case: Senators look for a wealthy casualty of Katrina as evidence against the estate tax"], Time Magazine, September 17, 2005 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 CIA from any ban on torture.
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