POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

Statement from Law School Faculty Opposing Nomination of Jeff Sessions for the Position of Attorney General

Affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.  The list below is updated regularly and is current as of 9pm PST 1/3/17.

If you are a law professor and want to add your name to this statement, click here: https://goo.gl/sTw78a 
To contribute funds to run this statement as a full-page ad, click here: www.gofundme.com/sessionsletter

For more information about Senator Sessions’ record, click here
To contact the law faculty organizers of this effort, email sessionsletter@gmail.com.^[1]

The Honorable Charles E. Grassley

The Honorable Dianne G. Feinstein

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary

Dirksen Senate Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Chairman Grassley and Ranking Member Feinstein:

We are 1226 faculty members from 176 different law schools in 49 states across the country. We urge you to reject the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for the position of Attorney General of the United States.

In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, in a bipartisan vote, rejected President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of then-U.S. Attorney Sessions for a federal judgeship, due to statements Sessions had made that reflected prejudice against African Americans. Nothing in Senator Sessions’ public life since 1986 has convinced us that he is a different man than the 39-year-old attorney who was deemed too racially insensitive to be a federal district court judge.

Some of us have concerns about his misguided prosecution of three civil rights activists for voter fraud in Alabama in 1985, and his consistent promotion of the myth of voter-impersonation fraud. Some of us have concerns about his support for building a wall along our country’s southern border. Some of us have concerns about his robust support for regressive drug policies that have fueled mass incarceration. Some of us have concerns about his questioning of the relationship between fossil fuels and climate change. Some of us have concerns about his repeated opposition to legislative efforts to promote the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ community. Some of us share all of these concerns.

All of us believe it is unacceptable for someone with Senator Sessions’ record to lead the Department of Justice.

The Attorney General is the top law enforcement officer in the United States, with broad jurisdiction and prosecutorial discretion, which means that, if confirmed, Jeff Sessions would be responsible for the enforcement of the nation’s civil rights, voting, immigration, environmental, employment, national security, surveillance, antitrust, and housing laws.

As law faculty who work every day to better understand the law and teach it to our students, we are convinced that Jeff Sessions will not fairly enforce our nation’s laws and promote justice and equality in the United States. We urge you to reject his nomination.

The complete list of those who have signed the letter is available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/167Ci3pVqwzOUe7_e7itlpew1qGcTo0ZD5dNICIbLQWA/pub.