Latino groups call out Good Ole' Boy Jeff Sessions for his racist attacks on Sotomayor

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



25 Latino groups hit Sessions for racial attacks.

Last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) claimed that Judge Sotomayor may not be fit for the Supreme Court because she served on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (now known as “LatinoJustice PRLDEF”), a highly regarded civil rights organization. On Monday, a group of 25 leading Latino organizations, including the Hispanic National Bar Association, the National Council of La Raza, and the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to Sessions slamming his questionable attacks on LatinoJustice PRLDEF:

LatinoJustice PRLDEF is a strong and vibrant institution and its work serves not only the Latino community, but the nation as a whole because it advances the basic American principles of equal opportunity and equal access to justice for all in our society. While we each have the right to disagree on specific issues, LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s body of work deserves our respect and yours. Attacks on Latino advocacy and civil rights organizations are not new – we have seen figures in the media mischaracterize and slander our good works, using provocative terms that fan the flames of ethnic animosity. We expect and are entitled to better from a sitting member of the United States Senate.

Sadly, however, Sessions has a long history of these kinds of attacks. Indeed, his own nomination to the federal bench was rejected by the Senate in 1986 because of Sessions’ record of bringing racially-motivated prosecutions, belittling African-American attorneys, and describing the NAACP as an “un-American” and “Communist-inspired” organization that “forced civil rights down the throats of people.” Twenty-three years later, Sessions hasn’t changed one bit.


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/08/sessions-letter/

[nosmokes]

1. please refer to the honorable racist, misogynist, xenophobic,homophobic Senator

from deepest darkest most secret Alabama that we'd like to bury with the rest of the bones in the chiffarobe as Beauregard henceforth.

Thank-y'all very much

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Was that the dork who undersigned the "Winners Don't Do Drugs" FBI warning on arcade games

back in the 80's?

[DainBramaged]

3. Jefferson Beauregard "Jeff" Sessions, Confederate douche-nozzle supreme

In 1986, Sessions was nominated for a federal judgeship by Reagan. The nomination was killed by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which refused by a 9-9 vote<3> to let the nomination come to the Senate floor for a vote. Sessions's opponents accused him of "gross insensitivity” on racial issues.<2><4> Sessions allegedly made a variety of comments that opponents pointed to, when he jokingly said that the Ku Klux Klan was not so bad until he found out that some of them smoked marijuana.<2><4> Sessions also allegedly referred to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as "un-American" and "Communist-inspired" because they "forced civil rights down the throats of people." At his confirmation hearings, Sessions said that the groups could be un-American when "they involve themselves in un-American positions" in foreign policy.<4><4> Sessions claimed that the remarks had been made in jest.<2><4> One of those voting against him was Democratic Senator Howell Heflin of Alabama.

Sessions was quoted then as saying that the Senate on occasion had been insensitive to the rights and reputation of nominees.<3> After joining the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sessions remarked that his presence there, alongside several of the members who voted against him, was a “great irony.”<3> To add to the irony, after Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the GOP to join the Democratic Party on April 28, 2009, Sessions was assigned to be the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. This means that if Republicans were able to regain control of the U.S. Senate while he was still serving that he would be the chairman of the very committee that shot him down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Sessions#Federal_judgeship

[Alexander]

4. Both him and Shelby have a history of racist remarks.

Alabama sure picked a couple of winners.