Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
From Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee:
And I will not vote for, and no senator should vote for, an individual nominated by any president who believes it is acceptable for a judge to allow their personal background, gender, prejudices or sympathies to sway their decision in favor of or against parties before the court.
Really? Let's test out that claim a bit.
And I believe, Senator, that I can make a contribution, that I can bring something different to the Court, that I can walk in the shoes of the people who are affected by what the Court does. You know, on my current court I have occasion to look out the window that faces C Street, and there are converted buses that bring in the criminal defendants to our criminal justice system, bus load after bus load. And you look out and you say to yourself, and I say to myself almost every day, "But for the grace of God there go I."So you feel that you have the same fate, or could have, as those individuals. So I can walk in their shoes and I could bring something different to the Court. And I think it is a tremendous responsibility and it's a humbling responsibility and it's one that if confirmed, I will carry out to the best of may abilities.
That was said by none other than Justice Clarence Thomas. And he didn't say it years before he was nominated for the Supreme Court, he said it at his confirmation hearings. Yet in 1997, when Sotomayor was nominated for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, Sessions actually interrogated her over allegedly not showing the proper respect for Justice Thomas by standing and applauding him at a judicial conference (in fact, she had done so, she just didn't tell a reporter that she had).
I don't come from an affluent background or a privileged background. My parents were both quite poor when they were growing up.And I know about their experiences and I didn't experience those things. I don't take credit for anything that they did or anything that they overcame.
But I think that children learn a lot from their parents and they learn from what the parents say. But I think they learn a lot more from what the parents do and from what they take from the stories of their parents lives.
And that's why I went into that in my opening statement. Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position.
And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.
But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. They were not citizens at one time, and they were people who came to this country."
When I have cases involving children, I can't help but think of my own children and think about my children being treated in the way that children may be treated in the case that's before me.
And that goes down the line. When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. When I have a case involving someone who's been subjected to discrimination because of disability, I have to think of people who I've known and admire very greatly who've had disabilities, and I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.
So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.
That was said by Justice Samuel Alito during his confirmation hearings. Jeff Sessions voted for him and enthusiastically endorsed him.
This is a guy who admitted to calling the NAACP a "communist organization." This is a guy who called a white civil rights lawyer a "disgrace to his race" for litigating voting rights cases. This is a guy no one should be taking seriously on such matters.
Politics
Comments
Excellent op-ed piece in the Washington Post recently pointed out Sessions's root mistake here: he thinks of affluent white males as the "default" state, as "normal" for the human race. Everybody else has "experience" and "perspectives" and "biases," while rich white guys are "neutral" and "impartial."
Posted by: Christopher Heard | July 17, 2009 11:08 AM
Sessions and other southern Republican Senators provide compelling evidence that southern conservatives merely hide their racism better now than before.
In addition, I was entertained by some of the conservatives questions and grandstanding, e.g., Sessions bringing the Ricci firefighters to the hearing. On the one hand they argued repeatedly and vociferously against empathy. There is zero evidence Sotomayor's rulings and opinions have a scintilla of empathy supporting her conclusions. Yet many of the conservatives' complaints was the supposed harm done to litigants because Sotomayor followed precedent that limited her in her duties rather than derive an outcome that was more empathetic to the subject litigants conservatives favored like the plaintiffs in the Ricci case, along with several other examples.
So while Sotomayor has proven to have great fealty to the law, the conservatives once again have shown themselves as hypocrites with zero critical thinking skills pandering to an audience who also lacks any ability to think critically but instead merely looking for rhetorical fast food.
In the meantime I have no idea how she'll decide when to overturn precedent given the additional powers afforded her if she's nominated; only that she'll possibly provide too much respect to past precedent a la' O'Connor.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 17, 2009 11:09 AM
The best part is that his full name is Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.
Just typing that makes me feel like I should be dressed up in a white suit while drinking a mint julep.
Posted by: Technogeek | July 17, 2009 11:35 AM
Here's hoping after all this is over she lets herself be overheard at a posh DC restaurant saying something like "I'm glad I'm now done being grilled by racist dipshits like Jeff Sessions."
Posted by: steve s | July 17, 2009 11:45 AM
Senator Sessions is what they refer to as rich white trash.
Posted by: SLC | July 17, 2009 11:45 AM
I'm only speaking from personal experience here but throw in other qualifiers like "Christian" and "straight" and you 'll have the outlook that is too typicial in Alabama. It is also common enough to find that many also think that if you are anything other than the above, then all of the world's problems can be traced right back to your doorstep.
Posted by: AL Jeremy | July 17, 2009 12:29 PM
AL Jeremy:
You forgot "racist asshole hypocrite" in your list of qualifiers.
My guess is that Mr. Sessions goes by his nickname,"Bo" when he is running around the bedroom in his sheet and thong.
Posted by: democommie | July 17, 2009 12:44 PM
I couldn't agree more with Christopher Heard's comment. I tried to figure out a more charitable interpretation of Session's questions, no dice. All I can figure is that he honestly thinks that it's possible for some people to be completely unbiased and objective and that those people tend to be old, upper-midle class white males.
He seems so worried that folks like him might have to appear before a judge who doesn't see the world the same way they do and a gross miscarriage of justice will result. I would be more sympathetic if he had ever shown a lick of concern for the rights of minorities who ACTUALLY had the experience of going before a biased judge and getting the shit end of the stick. Bias doesn't bother him unless its bias against his own, whether real or imagined.
I had the exact same thought listening to these hearings as I did Justice Roberts' hearings: How embarrasing. S/he's clearly so much smarter than most of the Senators yet has to sit there all deferential in the face of such massive stupid.
Posted by: peaches | July 17, 2009 12:55 PM
Nice compilation of Jeff Sessions sleazy background here
Posted by: AJ | July 17, 2009 1:49 PM
No relation. Really. I can prove it.
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | July 17, 2009 2:05 PM
The best part is that his full name is Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III.
So, uh, I'm guessing that the "Beauregard" is after Confederate General PGT Beauregard. Any guesses as to whether the "Jefferson" is for Thomas Jefferson or Jefferson Davis?
Posted by: Geds | July 17, 2009 2:23 PM
No tellin' in the South. A short name like "Jefferson Beauregard" is easy enough, but there's a serious custom (esp. among Cajuns, and I'm guessing JB's family is Cajun going by the surname) of picking boynames for euphony as much as anything.
Of course, after a few generations those polysyllabic names get to be such a mouthful that folks take to calling the kids "Jeff" or "JB." Assuming that they're not total assholes, some time after they've gone to their rewards there's someone who wants to name a new child after the dear departed, and so you have some kid whose whole and proper name is "Jeff" or "JB."
Or, for that matter, "D. C."
Posted by: D. C. Sessions | July 17, 2009 2:36 PM
What sort of idiot thinks that anyone can avoid being influenced by their prior experiences? And aren't those experiences a part of why someone is chosen to do a job?
How many senators didn't refer to their past experiences as reasons to elect them?
Posted by: SimonG | July 17, 2009 4:14 PM
SimonG:
Man, you just don't get it. The Senators ain't interpreting the laws, they just make them!
Posted by: democommie | July 17, 2009 4:48 PM
"So, uh, I'm guessing that the "Beauregard" is after Confederate General PGT Beauregard. Any guesses as to whether the "Jefferson" is for Thomas Jefferson or Jefferson Davis?"
It's a good bet he wasn't named after GEORGE Jefferson.
Posted by: Rick R | July 17, 2009 11:20 PM
"This is a guy no one should be taking seriously on such matters."
Is there any matter that little Jeffy Sessions should be taken seriously on?
Posted by: slpage | July 19, 2009 2:27 PM
@13 "What sort of idiot thinks that anyone can avoid being influenced by their prior experiences?"
An idiot who thinks that arriving at a correct decision in law is a simple matter of doing textual analysis on the constitution, of dispassionately running a algorithm. Who thinks that judging doesn't actually require judgment.
Posted by: Paul Murray | July 19, 2009 10:59 PM