How Jeff Sessions Could Threaten The Disability Rights Movement

Trump’s nominee for Attorney General has a troubling track record on disability rights.

O n July 26, 1990, President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law, declaring, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down!” Notably, this was not the first or last time a federal disability rights law was enacted by a Republican president. In fact, disability rights have normally enjoyed bipartisan support.

But of course, these are not normal times — and the many successes we have made in disability rights are at risk of being undone.

This week, Senate hearings will begin to confirm Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. The hearings for Senator Jeff Sessions, who has been nominated to be the next Attorney General, will begin tomorrow, and Republicans have pushed for a rushed two-day hearing.

Notably, this is not the first time Sessions has been chosen for a federal position. In 1986, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship. Ultimately, however, the Senate rejected Sessions’ nomination, in part because of his prosecution of black voting rights activists on voter fraud charges when he was a U.S. attorney in Alabama.

Disability rights…