Jeff Sessions

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Jeff Sessions
United States Senator from Alabama
Incumbent
Assumed office  January 7, 1997 Serving with Richard Shelby
Preceded by	Howell T. Heflin
44th Attorney General of Alabama
In office January 16, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Governor	Fob James
Preceded by	Jimmy Evans
Succeeded by	William H. Pryor, Jr.
Born	December 24, 1946 (1946-12-24) (age 62) Selma, Alabama
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Mary Blackshear Sessions
Children	Mary Abigail Sessions, Ruth Walk Sessions, Sam Sessions
Residence	Mobile, Alabama
Alma mater	Huntingdon College University of Alabama
Occupation	Attorney
Religion	Methodist
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1973-1977
Rank	Captain
Unit	Reserves

Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is the junior United States Senator from Alabama. He is a member of the Republican Party, and the new ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

[edit] Early life

Sessions was born in Selma, Alabama, to Abbie Powe and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, Jr.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.

Sessions and his wife Mary have three children: Mary Abigail, Ruth Walk, and Sam.

[edit] Political career

[edit] Early 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 U.S. Senate to serve as the United States Attorney for Alabama's Southern District, a position he held for 12 years.

[edit] Federal judgeship

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's opponents accused him of "gross insensitivity” on racial issues.^[2][4] Sessions allegedly made a variety of comments that opponents pointed to, when he jokingly said that the Ku Klux Klan was not so bad until he found out that some of them smoked marijuana.^[2][4] Sessions also allegedly referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "un-American" and "Communist-inspired" because 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] To add to the irony, after Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the GOP to join the Democratic Party on April 28, 2009, Sessions was assigned to be the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This means that if Republicans were able to regain control of the U.S. Senate while he was still serving that he would be the chairman of the very committee that shot him down.

[edit] Alabama Attorney General and U.S. Senate

Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama 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.^[2] He succeeded Heflin, who had retired after 18 years in the Senate. In 2002, Sessions won reelection by defeating Democratic State Auditor Susan Parker. In 2008, Sessions defeated Democratic State Senator Vivian Davis Figures to win a third term.

Sessions was only the second freshman Republican Senator from Alabama since Reconstruction and gave Alabama two Republican senators, also a first since 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.

[edit] Political positions

Sessions was ranked by National Journal as the fifth-most conservative U.S. Senator in their March 2007 Conservative/Liberal Rankings.^[5] He backs conservative Republican stances on foreign affairs, taxes, and social issues. He opposes abortion and illegal immigration. Sessions serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and is its only member to have unsuccessfully faced the Committee before becoming a U.S. Senator. Sessions was a supporter of the "nuclear option," a tactic favored by then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in the spring of 2005 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.

A December 2007 poll showed Sessions with a 56-percent approval rating, with 34 percent disapproving.^[6]

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 protesters, 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."^[7]

On October 5, 2005, he was one of nine Senators who voted against a Senate amendment to a House bill that prohibited cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment of individuals in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government.^[8]

Sessions has taken a strong stand against any form of citizenship for illegal immigrants. Sessions was one of the most vocal critics of the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.

Sessions was one of 37 Senators to vote against funding for embryonic stem cell research.^[9]

[edit] Environmental record

In 2005, Jeff Sessions received a 0 percent on the Republicans for Environmental Protection's ("REP") environmental scorecard.^[10] He voted in a manner inconsistent with what the REP considers pro-environment on all 15 issues considered environmentally critical by the REP. Issues in which Sessions voted "anti"-environment were all amendments to the Energy Policy Act proposed in 2005, the issue of authorizing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and fuel economy standards for vehicles.

Sessions received a 5 percent from the League of Conservation Voters ("LCV") scorecard for his pro-environment vote on the issue of natural gas facilities.^[11] He voted against tabling the bill which would allow states a say in companies building new and possibly harmful natural gas facilities. This pro-environment vote, however, was balanced by his "anti-environment votes on the energy conference report, renewable energy, farm conservation programs, global warming, natural gas facilities, undermining fuel economy, increasing fuel economy, and various other issues."

In 2006, Sessions received a 0 percent from the REP^[12] and a 0 percent from the LCV^[11] According to this organization, he voted anti-environment on the issue of energy and weatherization assistance, drilling, environmental funding, peer review, renewable resources, and The Gulf of Mexico Security Act.

[edit] Controversies

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 African American 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's 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."^[13]

Sessions was one of only nine opponents of Senator John McCain's anti-torture amendment. Sessions supports former Vice President Dick Cheney's proposal to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from any ban on the use of torture.^[14]

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.^[15] He later voted in favor of extending it.^[16][17]

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 Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California who replied, "[Senator Sessions said] '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."^[18]

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 five years.^[19]

Sessions opposes approval of the Uniting American Families Act. In June 2009, during testimony by a 42-year-old Filipino woman who was scheduled to be deported in April 2009 despite being the mother of two American children and having a relationship for 23 years with an American woman, Sessions was audibly heard relaying to one of his aides, "Enough with the histrionics" when the woman's 12-year-old son began crying during the testimony. ^[20]

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Airland
  • Subcommittee on SeaPower
  • Subcommittee on Strategic Forces (Ranking Member)
• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
  • Subcommittee on Energy
  • Subcommittee on National Parks
  • Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests
• Committee on the Judiciary (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts (Ranking Member)
  • Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs
  • Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Refugees
  • Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology, and Homeland Security
• Caucus on International Narcotics Control

[edit] Electoral history

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jeff Sessions

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jeff Sessions

• Senator Jeff Sessions official U.S. Senate website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Staff salaries, trips and personal finance at LegiStorm.com
• Current Bills Sponsored at StateSurge.com
• Congressional profile at GovTrack.us
• Profile at SourceWatch Congresspedia

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