Today, Common Cause activists in a dozen states are delivering petitions urging their U.S. Senators to vote against the nomination of Sen. Jefferson Beauregard “Jeff” Sessions III (R-AL) to serve as U.S. Attorney General. For decades, Sen. Sessions has been an outspoken critic of the Voting Rights Act, one of the nation’s most critical pieces of civil and voting rights legislation, which paved the way for an inclusive democracy. As Attorney General, Sessions would be charged with deciding how and when to enforce the Voting Rights Act, which he has repeatedly condemned as an “intrusive piece of legislation.” The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote today to send the nomination forward to a vote of the full Senate in the coming weeks.     

“Senator Sessions represents a very serious threat to the Voting Rights Act and to the ability of millions of Americans to cast their ballots on Election Day,” said Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn. “The right to vote is a touchstone of our democracy and we want the Senators we are contacting today to be fully aware that their constituents are watching closely to see where they come down on this vote.”

Petitions are being delivered today to district offices of Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), John McCain (R-AZ), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Tom Carper (D-DE), Chris Coons (D-DE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jon Tester (D-MT), Dean Heller (R-NV), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Joe Manchin (D-WV). Due to a winter storm, petitions will be delivered tomorrow in the Lewiston and Augusta offices of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

The 596,327 signatures on the petitions were gathered by Common Cause, MoveOn.org, the NAACP, People Demanding Action, NARAL, People for the American Way and Daily Kos.

On only a handful of occasions in its 46-year history has Common Cause opposed presidential nominees. Sen. Sessions’ nomination was added to that short list based on his record and his longtime criticism of many of the laws he would be charged with enforcing as Attorney General. 

Common Cause s'était auparavant opposé aux nominations de Robert Bork à la Cour suprême des États-Unis, de John Tower au poste de secrétaire à la Défense et d'Ed Meese au poste de procureur général des États-Unis. Les nominations de Bork et Tower ont été rejetées par le Sénat américain. Meese a été confirmé et a exercé les fonctions de procureur général, mais a démissionné de ses fonctions en raison de son rôle dans un scandale de contrats de défense.

In 1986, Sessions’ nomination to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama was rejected by a Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. After listening to extensive testimony about controversial statements made and actions taken by Sessions, the Judiciary Committee was unable to muster enough votes to even pass the nomination on to the full Senate without recommendation.  

For his current nomination, Sen. Sessions attempted to create for himself a civil rights record that simply does not exist. As three former DOJ attorneys noted in a recent op-ed, Sen. Sessions completed no substantive work on at least three of the four cases he claimed in his recent questionnaire as representing his most significant civil rights cases. Tellingly, Sen. Sessions failed to include these same cases in his questionnaire for his unsuccessful 1986 nomination to a federal judgeship. 

For a full schedule of petition deliveries, Cliquez ici.

See photos and videos from the petition deliveries at the Common Cause Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/CommonCause