10 Reasons Jeff Sessions Is a Disastrous Pick for Attorney General

Alabama Senator and nominee for Attorney General of the United States Jeff Sessions

The hearings may be over, but the fight is not.

The Attorney General is the top lawyer in the land. Their job is to enforce the law and protect the civil rights of everyone in this country.

Jeff Sessions has demeaned and dismissed LGBT people at every turn — especially those of us who are also immigrants, women and people of color. He is a lifelong opponent of civil rights, and he is unfit to serve as Attorney General.

At Lambda Legal we are particularly disturbed by Senator Sessions’ current co-sponsorship of the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill that should really be called the “Fostering American Discrimination Act.” It would allow any corporation, organization or person to ignore federal laws that conflict with their personal religious beliefs about marriage.

If passed, this despicable legislation would invite discrimination against LGBT people in virtually all sectors of public life, including employment, housing, education and health care.

Below are just some examples from Senator Sessions’s long record of extremism, as outlined by my colleague Eric Lesh, Lambda Legal’s Fair Courts Project Director.

This is why Jeff Sessions is demonstrably unfit to serve as Attorney General.

1. In 1996, as Alabama’s Attorney General, he tried to block a student conference about LGBT issues from taking place at the University of Alabama. The university’s leadership said they believed the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom protected the students’ right to hold the Southeastern Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual College Conference meeting on campus. But, according to the Huntsville Times, he said he intended to do everything he could “to stop that conference.” When a federal judge agreed with students that the First Amendment does protect their right to free speech on LGBT issues, he disagreed and tried, unsuccessfully, for a different answer from the Eleventh Circuit.
2. In 2004, he said that he believes “children are more likely to be healthy in two-parent homes, and there is less government dependence when people are in families led by married parents.” In 2006, he stated that he believes marriage equality is a “threat,” that it weakens the institution of marriage, and has also vowed to “fight to defend marriage as between a man and a woman.” He has consistently supported a constitutional amendment to prevent states from recognizing the freedom to marry and to engrave the discriminatory principles of the Defense of Marriage Act into our country’s most sacred document.
3. In 2009, he voted against the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. At the time he said he didn’t believe the law was “compelled by the facts that are happening in America today.”
4. In 2013, he voted against reauthorization for the Violence Against Women Act, which protects and individuals from domestic violence, dating violence, and sexual assault.
5. In March of 2015, he voted against the Schatz Amendment to the FY 2016 Budget Resolution, which would have ensured that same-sex couples have equal rights to social security and veteran’s benefits.
6. He is a co-sponsor of the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill that should be called the “Fostering American Discrimination Act.” FADA would allow individuals and some institutions to disregard otherwise applicable laws and rules if doing so is prompted by particular religious beliefs or moral convictions concerning marriage or non-marital sexual relations.
7. In 2015, he said “it is a real problem when we have Black Lives Matter making statements that are really radical, that are absolutely false, and then being invited to the White House.”
8. He opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) and voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
9. He has called for the end of birthright citizenship and voted against the DREAM Act, which would have provided a way for immigrants who came to the United States as children to earn their citizenship.
10. Sessions called the Voting Rights Act a “piece of intrusive legislation.”

Senator Jeff Sessions is unfit to enforce our nation’s civil right laws. Call your senators now and tell them to #StopSessions.