According to Capitol Hill sources, it appears that Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions will become the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- after former ranking member Arlen Specter switched parties . . . Interestingly, Sessions saw his own appointment as a federal judge fall apart in the Senate Judiciary Committee in the 1980s, after Democrats attacked him for his insensitivity on racial matters, as well as prosecuting vote fraud.
Sessions to Replace Specter on Judiciary
MSNBC
May 4, 2009
Sessions first appeared on the scene in 1986 D.C. when President Ronald Reagan nominated him to serve on the U.S. District Court in Alabama. At the time, the Judiciary Committee was controlled by Republicans, but his appointment nonetheless went absolutely nowhere.
Senator Who Praised Segregationist Judges Will Lead Opposition To Obama Nominees
Talking Points Memo.com
May 4, 2009
Senate Democrats tracked down a career Justice Department employee named J. Gerald Hebert, who testified, albeit reluctantly, that in a conversation between the two men Sessions had labeled the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ) "un-American" and "Communist-inspired." Hebert said Sessions had claimed these groups "forced civil rights down the throats of people" . . . Hebert testified that the young lawyer tended to "pop off" on such topics regularly, noting that Sessions had called a white civil rights lawyer a "disgrace to his race" for litigating voting rights cases.
Another damaging witness--a black former assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama named Thomas Figures--testified that . . . Sessions . . . had called him "boy" and, after overhearing him chastise a secretary, warned him to "be careful what you say to white folks."
Closed Sessions
The New Republic
December 30, 2002
Well, you know, judges aren't the only ones who get to wear robes.