Civil rights groups: Sessions unfit for AG

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is unfit to serve as attorney general, civil rights groups say, due to his derogatory remarks about minorities and being associated with “hate groups.”

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and nearly 150 other groups say in an open letter to senators that Sessions has a “30-year record of racial insensitivity, bias against immigrants, disregard for the rule of law, and hostility to the protection of civil rights that makes him unfit to serve as the attorney general of the United States.”

But they stopped short of calling Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Justice, a racist.

“The burden on Senator Sessions is not to prove that he is not a ‘racist,’” they wrote. “For the record, the Leadership Conference has never made such an allegation, as we do not claim to know what has been in his heart.”

Instead, the civil rights groups claim Sessions has a record of failing to protect the rights of minorities, immigrants, gay people and women over the course of his career that disqualifies him from serving as attorney general.

They point to his attempt to prosecute voting rights activists as a U.S. attorney in 1985 and his more recent support in the Senate for controversial voter identification laws that make it more difficult for some minorities to cast a ballot.

“In our democracy, the attorney general is charged with enforcing our nation’s laws without prejudice and with an eye toward justice,” they wrote. “And, just as important, the attorney general has to be seen by the public — every member of the public, from every community — as a fair arbiter of justice.

“Unfortunately, there is little in Sen. Sessions’ record that demonstrates that he would meet such a standard,” they added.