Free Republic

Federal Bench: Yet another judicial nominee seeks to impose the "empathy" standard on the courts. He thinks judges should base rulings on a plaintiff's status, legislate from the bench and amend the Constitution. Indiana federal judge David Hamilton stands poised to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to assume a seat on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals serving Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. He's a former fundraiser for Acorn and a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He is also another in a series of activist judges who believe the U.S. Constitution is not...

Sen. Jeff Sessions believes Judge Sotomayor would be an activist Justice on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) talks about doing "that crack cocaine thing" with a black Attorney General at the Sonia Sotomayor hearing.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor ended four days of testimony this afternoon with prospects of rapid confirmation to the Supreme Court improved, as a conservative Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee edged toward endorsing her and the panel's ranking Republican said the GOP would not block a vote on her nomination. Shortly before the committee concluded its questioning of Sotomayor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the panel's senior GOP member, told Sotomayor he would "look forward to you getting that vote" by the time the Senate takes its annual summer break, slated to begin Aug. 7.

WASHINGTON – Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Republican equating Sonia Sotomayor's supposed empathy with racial bias, was blocked from the federal bench himself two decades ago for making insensitive remarks about the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP. The third-term Alabama senator, this week at least, is the face of a party without a clear leader. His role strikes some as hypocritical. But arguably, no one knows more intimately what a political minefield race has been for the GOP. ~SNIP~Sessions is the personification of a party with an overwhelmingly white, Southern, religious membership.

Here is video of Sen. Jeff Sessions making his opening statement today at the Senate Judiciary Committee's Confirmation Hearing for Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor. . . . . . . (Watch Video)

Here is video from the NAACP Convention this weekend where they issued a warning to Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions that he should "tone down his rhetoric" about Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor, whose confirmation hearings begin today. Sessions is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and will have opportunity to question Sotomayor. The NAACP essentially told Sessions "we are watching you," and are seeking to cow him into silence. It won't work. Jeff Sessions is a man of tremendous character and integrity. He won't be intimidated by the radical NAACP, an organization with a proud history, but one that...

Cannot post. Here is the linkhttp://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090712/OPINION01/907120317/1036/Opinion

The senior Republican senator who will question Sonia Sotomayor says the Supreme Court nominee must demonstrate she will not show bias on the bench. Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions tells CBS's "Face the Nation" that in speeches over the past 10 years, Sotomayor has said repeatedly that personal experiences influence a judge's decisions. Sessions says Sotomayor has criticized the idea that a woman and a man would reach the same result. That point of view, according to Sessions, reflects a philosophy that is incompatible with the American system. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, says...

As the confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama's Supreme Court appointee Sonia Sotomayor are upon us, the left-wing attack machine had to take a few last shots ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Sen. Jeff Session, Ala., and the Republican Party as a whole. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow explained the junior Alabama senator would take over the spot after Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party on her July 10 program, suggesting his selection to the post was part of some rebranding by the GOP. "Republicans have also decided to have Senator Jeff Sessions lead this battle for them," Maddow...

In a stunning report (pdf) released yesterday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the current financial crisis was traced back to government intervention in the U.S. housing market.  Yes, you read that right.   The report issued by the Republican minority didn’t disclose the names of the culprit individuals, but it sure pointed a lot of fingers at organizations, politicians, lobbyists and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. According to the report, government intervention “created ‘affordable’ but dangerous lending policies which encouraged lower down payments, looser underwriting standards and higher leverage.  Finally, government intervention created a nexus of vested interests...

Senate Republicans started focusing their critique of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, readying a series of speeches to illustrate conservative discomfort with President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Justice David Souter. The first could come as early as Tuesday morning, when Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, is expected to take the floor. A central point, according to a Senate Republican aide: Sotomayor’s role in the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, now known as LatinoJustice PRLDEF. She belonged to the group’s board of directors from 1980 to 1992, leaving after President George H.W....

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/06/17/sen_sessions_calls_ag_holder_too_soft_on_terror.html

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, in the Republican Party's weekly message, said today that confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be respectful, but he also warned that any evidence her personal history would shape her decision-making will be challenged forcefully. "Although we sometimes take our heritage of neutral and independent judiciary for granted, the truth is, this great tradition is under attack. And the American people are rightly concerned," Sessions said in the GOP address distributed nationally as a counterpoint to President Barack Obama's weekly address. ... In his remarks, Sessions maintained his cordial approach to...

Newt Gingrich says his initial reaction to Judge Sotomayor's nomination was "too strong and too direct." Sen. Sessions says he is "very glad" Gingrich has back off his "hostile" criticism. Sessions says this will "help" the GOP have a "real good discussions about the serious issues that the nation faces."

You'd expect to see this in the liberal blogosphere or possibly some of the national mainstream media outlets with an obvious agenda. But now some of the preemptive strikes against Republican senators leading up to the Senate confirmation hearings and eventual vote to confirm President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, are finding their way into local newspapers. An op-ed published in The Anniston (Ala.) Star on May 28 by Ari Rabin-Havt, the managing director of the left-wing Media Matters Action Network, attacked the new ranking Republican of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. ...more...

While there is growing anticipation that the summer will bring the spectacle of a pitched Supreme Court confirmation battle, some Senate Republicans are lowering expectations that they are planning any major political fight. President Obama has not yet named his choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter on the Supreme Court, but several Republicans acknowledge it is unlikely they will be able to derail the nomination absent some startling revelation about the candidate. Those Republicans, including both senior staff aides and some senators, suggested in interviews that that they believe President Obama’s first nominee for the court will be confirmed...

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) appeared this morning on "Morning Joe". "Gay tendencies"? What the... this is why people consider Republicans homophobic, intolerant, etc. Sure, I'm glad Sessions will look at someone's legal qualifications over anything else, but there had to be a better way to answer the question without using those words. What an idiot.

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), the newly-minted ranking Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday indicated openness to supporting a gay nominee to replace Supreme Court David Souter, who will retire this summer.Two openly gay academics, Stanford Law professor Pam Karlan and former Stanford Law Dean Kathleen Sullivan, have emerged as potential candidates for the post. The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund is pushing to have a gay nominee, which will be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment.The Senate Judiciary panel will be key to confirming whoever will be the President's choice. Sessions was chosen...

[Note: The link is a hit piece on Jeff Sessions, and it would be great if everyone could take a part of it and show how they're lying, misleading, taking things out of context, and so on. Simply dismissing this as not affecting you personally is not an effective thing to say. Simply saying, 'consider the source' is not effective. In order to counteract things like this, you have to show those who might be swayed by the report how the report is wrong.] From the link: Senator Jeff Sessions is one of the leading (and loudest) voices against comprehensive...

Michael O'Brien over at The Hill reports that Senator Jeff Sessions (R, Ala.) told Fox News recently that he had no litmus test on abortion for judicial candidates and that a judge that had pro-abortion views could get his vote for confirmation. This might alarm anyone that is vehemently anti-abortion. It should also alarm all those conservatives that pushed for Senator Sessions to be made the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. ...but hold your outrage for just a minute. Let's more closely look at what he said. Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday he could consider a gay nominee for the nation’s highest court. “I’m not inclined to think that’s an automatic disqualification,” Sessions said of a gay nominee. He said he intends to consider only the nominee’s legal judgment when deciding his support for Justice David Souter’s proposed replacement. “I may disagree with some legal opinion on those issues, but I think fundamentally it will be up to the president to submit somebody who would unite the country and would be a clear statement of a mainstream judge...

Now that Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. has been named the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, some on the far-left are gunning for Alabama's junior senator. The battle is happening as President Barack Obama is on the verge of naming an appointee to the Supreme Court to fill void of Justice David Souter.Some of the left-wing points that suggest Sessions has racist tendencies were incorporated into a May 6 Politico story by John Bresnahan and Manu Raju. "By elevating Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to their top spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans have selected their chief inquisitor for...

Sen. Arlen Specter said Tuesday he regrets his vote against Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) two decades ago that helped kill his nomination to the federal bench. Sessions, who has now assumed Specter's former position as the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to be a federal judge — but Specter provided a key "no" vote after allegations were made that Sessions had a poor record on race relations as Alabama attorney general. Sessions has called those allegations false and unfounded. Now Sessions and Specter both serve on the Judiciary Committee and have...

Yesterday, in a move very pleasing to conservatives, Senate Republicans chose Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be the new Republican ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The leadership seat was vacated by Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) when Specter switched to the Democrat Party in an attempt to win re-election next year. Republican voters in Pennsylvania made it quite clear early on that he would be ousted during the primary election. Principle and party have never been important to Specter. Sessions will now be the point man in Republican examination of President Obama’s nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice David...

Here's Sessions' statement in full: "It was inevitable from the start: politicians are now assuming operational control of the once-proud General Motors Corporation. Decisions are being made by an amorphous "task force," driven as much by how their decisions will impact the president's popularity as by their desire to ensure the success of the company. This bailout mentality, which has led to string of governmental interferences in the economy, is simply not compatible with our historic belief in the separation of the public and private sectors. "The question is not whether Rick Wagoner should be CEO of General Motors, but...

Jeff Sessions, appearing on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, attempted to explain his opposition to the Obama stimulus plan by stating that, “I don’t think we need to saddle future generations with 1.2 trillion of debt.” He’s right. It’s wrong to saddle future generations with huge amounts of debt. Yet it was Senator Jeff Sessions who was giving a rubber stamp to the Bush spending bills that added over 5 trillion dollars to the national debt. Where was Senator Sessions’ outrage when this runway spending was occuring under the Great Spender, George W. Bush? I’ll wait, but I won’t...

Toyota, BMW, Hyundai Workers' Senators Oppose Rescue

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration misled Congress about how it would spend the $700 billion allocated for the financial industry rescue, Sen. Jeff Sessions alleged in a heated letter to the White House on Friday.

The United States needs more senators like Alabama's Jeff Sessions. The Republican Party needs to recruit more senatorial candidates who have that potential. And the conservative movement ought to prod the Republican Party, sooner rather than later, to do so. First things first: Senator Sessions won election last week to a third term by a landslide margin, with 63 percent of the vote. He outpolled ticket-header John McCain in both percentage of the vote and in raw votes, even though far more votes were cast in the presidential contest than in the Senate one. He did so even though what...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WBRC-TV MyFoxAL.com) -- Alabama's two U.S. Senators don't seem overly optimistic about a revived bailout plan that is scheduled for a vote Wednesday night. A spokesman for Alabama Senator Richard Shelby tells FOX6 News he's reviewing the final language for the bill. Shelby has been a vocal opponent of the President's bailout plan. A spokeswoman in Senator Jeff Sessions office says as it stood Wednesday morning Sessions would likely vote against the bill. Congressional leaders from both parties said they are hopeful that a $700 billion financial industry bailout that derailed in the House is back on track...

Mr. President, I don't think, with all due respect to my good friend, the majority leader, who decided to bring up this bill, that discussing one of the most massive bills we have seen is a waste of time. I don't think 30 hours is too long. The Wall Street Journal, which he dismisses--I don't dismiss it--said:    This is easily the largest income redistribution scheme since the income tax.    That was today's Wall Street Journal editorial. I wish to say, this is not a matter that should be lightly dealt with. Thirty hours is not enough. We need to spend a...

WASHINGTON – To his credit, Rep. Jo Bonner has done his best to embrace some on the hard right that are still a little bitter Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) didn’t get the spot on the House Appropriations Committee. Bonner spoke at the Heritage Foundation’s Conservative Bloggers Briefing (yeah, I know – sounds like a wild party, huh?) a couple of weeks ago and explained that although he isn’t the absolutist Flake is, who wants to eradicate all earmarks – taxpayer money designated specifically for certain areas by Congress, he is the “quiet reformer.” “I had a reporter question me, ‘Why...

WASHINGTON – In the wake of last year’s failed immigration reform efforts, twelve Republican Senators today introduced 15 specific enforcement bills, each designed to make important improvements to America’s immigration system. Each bill in the package represents a specific step toward securing America’s borders, increasing enforcement at the workplace, or restoring law and order to our nation’s immigration system. The coalition, led by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), will call for full Senate consideration on each of the individual bills as amendments to any appropriate legislative vehicle or as stand-alone pieces of legislation. “The American people have made it clear...

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a leading immigration policy critic, said Wednesday that amendments planned for upcoming legislation could put more than 4 million illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship. That is about one-third of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who would have benefited from the comprehensive immigration overhaul bill (S 1639) he helped kill earlier this year, Sessions said. Sessions warned colleagues in a letter that legislation (S 774) labeled the DREAM Act that would allow states to provide college benefits to illegal immigrants could be offered as an amendment to the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill (HR...

8:00-8:30 SEN. JEFF SESSIONS R-Alabama http://sessions.senate.gov Topic: Senate’s immigration bill. Sen. Sessions is an opponent of the bill.

A broad immigration bill to legalize millions of people in the U.S. unlawfully failed a crucial test vote in the Senate Thursday, a stunning setback that could spell its defeat for the year. The vote was 45-50 against limiting debate on the bill, 15 short of the 60 that the bill's supporters needed to prevail. Most Republicans voted to block Democrats' efforts to bring the bill to a final vote. The legislation, which had been endorsed by President Bush, would tighten borders, institute a new system to prevent employers from hiring undocumented workers in addition to giving up to 12...

Majority Leader Reid, with plenty of Republican complicity, wants unanimous consent to dispense with 6 amendments to the immigration bill in 45 minutes this afternoon. The hope is that the cloture vote to end debate at 5 will then be successful. Senator Sessions is strongly objecting because that would allow too little time to understand fully each amendment and to debate their merits. The fast-track this legislation has been on has denied an opportunity to consider it fully and modify it thoughtfully. It by-passed the committee process. In committee last year, 60 amendments to the McCain-Kennedy bill were voted on....

Sessions' speech started a little while ago - so I don't know how much time is left - but it's quite good. I'll watch for the repeat.

I am going to take some time tonight to inform my colleagues about some of the problems with the legislation before us. It is worse than you think, colleagues. The legislation has an incredible number of problems with it. Some, as I will point out tonight, can only be considered deliberate. Whereas on the one hand it has nice words with good sounding phrases in it to do good things, on the second hand it completely eviscerates that, oftentimes in a way that only the most careful reading by a good lawyer would discover. So I feel like I have...

QUOTE FROM OFFICE TODAY 5/18/2007: "Senator Sessions is not a part of the small group of senators who compromised on an immigration proposal yesterday." -- Robert, in Senate Sessions' office, 9:40am EST 5/18/2007 He directed me to this page, which he says the Senator firmly stands by: http://sessions.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=273994 We DO have courageous, patriotic leaders in our Senate and House. Let us pray for and encourage them--and create unrelenting pressure on the unpatriotic ones. Let us be careful to speak with facts. A post I saw but could not relocate referred to Senator Sessions as having gone soft on amnesty. God...

In the aftermath of their November election victory, Democratic leaders have pledged to work on a bipartisan basis to solve the problems facing our nation. In that spirit, I suggest that Democrats and Republicans can successfully work together to create personal savings accounts for all Americans outside the Social Security system, an idea that politicians from both political parties have supported for years and that The Post's editorial page recently endorsed ["Up From the Depths," editorial, Nov. 27]. For the first time since the Great Depression, our country's savings rate has fallen into negative territory, with more than half of...

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions said sectarian violence in Iraq is a major problem but added after a visit there Monday that the stakes are too high to withdraw U.S. forces before the country is stabilized. Sessions and Sens. John Warner, R-Va.; Carl Levin, D-Mich.; and Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas, left Saturday on a trip to Jordan, Iraq and Israel, with a visit to Lebanon set for today. "We have so much riding on Iraq - the whole Middle East is watching this effort, wondering whether the U.S. can handle the difficult challenges we are facing," Sessions, R-Mobile, said Tuesday from the...

Hooper winner in bitter contest Wednesday, July 19, 2006 By BEN RAINES Staff Reporter Perry Hooper Jr. defeated John Amari in Tuesday's runoff election, earning the Republican nomination for the state Public Service Commission, Place 2. Hooper will face Democrat Susan Parker, a former state auditor, in the Nov. 7 general election. Amari and Hooper fought a bitter contest, notable for the rancor expended bashing each other, especially in the days before the June 6 primary. Hooper led the primary race, with Amari second and former PSC employee Jack Hornaday a close third. "I look forward to carrying my message...

Editor’s Note: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R.-Ala.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, offered a devastating analysis on the Senate immigration bill in a speech delivered on the Senate floor on Tuesday, May 23. Sessions pointed to shocking elements of the bill that were hidden deep in its text. These include, for example, that the employers of illegal aliens would be given an amnesty for cheating on their taxes, and that under the terms of the law the government would for all practical purposes have to take an illegal alien’s word for it that he has been in the country...

by Mark Finkelstein May 24, 2006 Imagine that Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank were profiling a Democrat who was as steadfastly liberal as Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama is conservative. The column writes itself. The liberal would be described as "putting principle above expediency", "courageous", maybe even "speaking truth to power." But when it comes to a conservative such as Sessions, that same adherence to principle is cast in the most negative light. Consider these excerpts from Milbank's column of today, Forget Politics. This Battle Is Personal. which focuses on Sessions' stand on immigration: "Jeff Sessions sure knows how...

The Senate immigration “compromise” won’t do.When the U.S. Senate returns later this month from spring recess, it will get a second chance to pass meaningful immigration reform. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) has promised to hold new hearings and report out a revised bill by May 4. The committee's starting point will be the so-called Hagel-Martinez "compromise" bill that failed to pass the Senate earlier this month. That bill, however, is fatally flawed, and I would like to point out several reasons why the committee should either rewrite it substantially or start from a clean slate. Among...

RUSH: Just to once again demonstrate that I'm not off the reservation on immigration, let me tell you -- it's a very fine line here -- but I have some experts from a floor speech made by Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama about the bill. This is a 500-page bill and most of the Senate has not even seen it. They've not read it all. Perhaps their staff is digging deep and reading it now, but some of stuff in here is shocking. Now, the point of this is to show you just how desperate some of these senators are...

SEN JEFF SESSIONS RAISING HELL ON C-SPAN 2 LIVE STREAMShttp://www.c-span.org/   Problems with video? >>

See for example this thread first. Ben Nelson wants to build a wall Mexican illegals to stallIndia did it first But that's not the worst Chuck Hagel don't want it at ALL!