Ten faculty and staff members of the University of Hawaii’s Richardson School of Law have joined hundreds of legal scholars throughout the country in opposing the confirmation of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney General.
UH law professors, including noted civil rights attorney Linda Hamilton Krieger and Charles Lawrence, known for his work in anti-discrimination law and equal protection, signed a letter sent to Congress on Tuesday urging Senate members not to confirm the Alabama Republican, in part due to concerns about his racial views.
The letter, addressed to Sens. Charles Grassley and Dianne Feinstein, who lead the Senate Judiciary Committee, was signed by more than 1,100 faculty members from 171 different law schools in 49 states.
“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,” according to the letter, which was first reported by the Washington Post. “We urge you to reject his nomination.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold confirmation hearings for Sessions on Jan. 10-11.
A spokeswoman for Sessions dismissed the letter as the work of “far-left academics.”
“This is just business as usual for the same far-left academics who trot out letters opposing just about any conservative or Republican who’s nominated to a key position by a Republican president,” said Sarah Isgur Flores, by email. “Jeff Sessions enjoys wide support from law enforcement organizations to civil rights leaders to victims’ rights organizations and many others. He will be confirmed with both Democratic and Republican votes to be the next Attorney General.”
In 1986, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee blocked Sessions’ nomination to be a federal judge after intense hearings that subjected him to questions about racial bias. Sessions was nominated to the judgeship by former President Ronald Reagan. Sessions’ prosecution of black civil rights activists for voter fraud in 1985 while he was a U.S. attorney in Alabama raised particular concerns then, as they are now.
Law professors raised that issue and others in their letter sent to Congress on Tuesday.
“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,” according to the letter. “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.”
Other signatories from the University of Hawaii’s law school include Kenneth Lawson, Mark Levin, Hazel Beh, Melody Kapilialoha MacKenzie, Victoria Szymczak, Troy Andrade, Catherine Bye and Brian R. Huffman.
The full letter and list of signatories can be read here Opens in a new tab: bit.ly/2hNdlIR.
