Jun 01 Column: 5 charts show why mandatory minimum sentences don't work By Tanya Golash-Boza, The Conversation Earlier this month Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo which requires prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious” offense when seeking sentences. The memo hearkens back to a failed experiment in mass incarceration in the 1980s and 1990s,… Continue reading
Feb 08 Watch 8:23 Silenced by the Senate, Elizabeth Warren explains why she opposes Jeff Sessions By PBS News Hour Continue watching
Feb 08 WATCH: Senate votes to confirm Jeff Sessions as attorney general By Andrew Taylor and Alan Fram, Associated Press Wednesday's confirmation vote comes amid rising tension between Republicans controlling the chamber over what they call delaying tactics by minority Democratic members. Continue reading
Jan 31 Watch 9:56 News Wrap: Spicer defends firing of acting attorney general By PBS News Hour In our news wrap Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer rejected criticism of the decision to fire Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for directing Justice Department lawyers not to defend President Trump's immigration order. Also, Senate Democrats forced delays… Continue watching
Jan 11 Watch 5:27 News Wrap: Cory Booker, John Lewis speak against Sessions By PBS News Hour In our news wrap Wednesday, black congressional leaders testified against Jeff Sessions, the president-elect’s nominee to be attorney general, on the second and final day of his confirmation hearings. Also, Elaine Chao, a former secretary of labor and now the… Continue watching
Jan 10 Watch 6:16 In hearing, Sessions says he'll put law above his own views By PBS News Hour It’s the first day of confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Attorney general nominee Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions spent the day before the Senate Judiciary Committee defending his views on race and civil rights and separating himself from the… Continue watching
Jan 10 Jeff Sessions to face Sen. Cory Booker and civil rights questions at confirmation hearing By Eric Tucker, Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press Democrats are expected to use the two days of hearings to challenge Sessions' commitment to civil rights, a chief priority of the Justice Department during the Obama administration. Continue reading
Jan 09 Why Sen. Jeff Sessions' record in Alabama could complicate his confirmation By Gretchen Frazee At his confirmation hearing this week, Jeff Sessions will face tough questions about his 20-year tenure in the Senate. But he’ll also be pressed on his record before he entered Congress, when he served as U.S. attorney and Alabama’s attorney… Continue reading
Jan 04 Watch 8:50 Why the NAACP and others are protesting Trump's attorney general pick By PBS News Hour The NAACP mounted protests across Alabama on Tuesday against the president-elect’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general, including at the senator’s office, where NAACP president Cornell Brooks and others staged a sit-in. Alison Stewart speaks with Sari Horwitz… Continue watching
Nov 22 Jeff Sessions, Trump's pick for attorney general, could influence immigration policy By Eileen Sullivan and Alicia A. Caldwell, Associated Press As a senator, Jeff Sessions became Congress' leading advocate not only for a cracking down on illegal immigration, but also for slowing all immigration, increasing mass deportations and scrutinizing more strictly those entering the U.S. As attorney general, he'd be… Continue reading