More than 1,100 law professors have signed a letter urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as attorney general. Citing the bipartisan rejection of Sessions as a federal judge in 1986 over his record of racism, his “consistent promotion of the myth of voter-impersonation fraud,” his “robust support for regressive drug policies that have fueled mass incarceration,” and his record on climate change, LGBT rights, and immigration, the legal scholars write that:
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.
The letter’s signers come from across the country and up and down the ranks of law schools—from 170 schools in 48 states (and Alaska doesn’t even have a law school)—so we’re not exactly talking about some kind of coastal bubble here.
Sessions has lined up a handful of people of color to say he’s not as racist as members of his own party concluded he was back in 1986, but his record speaks for itself. The problem is that today’s Republicans like what it’s saying.