U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee November 14, 2017 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Jeff Sessions Sets Back the Clock
How low can he go? And how far back can this Attorney General take us?
Pay no attention to what the media says about how undermined Jeff Sessions is. President Donald Trump may bait him publicly via tweet, but in private, at the Department of Justice, Sessions is a man on a mission to roll back civil rights. And that's just what he's doing.
Take what he did this July 3, quietly rescinding two dozen documents intended to make American institutions less racist.
The guidelines the AG scrapped included Obama-era guides on affirmative action that urged colleges to promote diversity for the benefit of the campus and the public good. Others reminded employers that asylum seekers have every right to work, and still others sought to head off another mortgage meltdown by warning brokers not to give predatory home loans to people without going through the fine print.
And Obama-era guidelines weren't the only ones Sessions withdrew. He also rescinded George W. Bush-era documents that reminded all Americans after 9-11 that discrimination on the basis of national origin is wrong.
The AG reached even further and nixed a Gerald Ford-era guide intended to keep kids out of adult prisons--and out of prison entirely for age-related offenses like truancy and drinking.
Rescinding these documents didn't make any new laws or repeal any old ones; the guides just sought to make existing law better understood. However, earlier this summer, the AG didwade into the law itself when he raised the bar for asylum seekers--mostly women--and took immigration decisions into his own hands and out of the courts.
In early June, Sessions ruled that domestic violence was, like gang crime, a "private crime," meaning its survivors are not considered members of any particular, at-risk social group. In an already decided case, he called on asylum seeker Aminta Cifuentes to prove that the Guatemalan government actively condoned what he called "private violence" when state police and law enforcement refused to intervene, even after her rapist husband doused her in turpentine and tried to set her alight.
In so-doing Sessions reversed a prior ruling on her case by an immigration appeal board.
On July 3, Sessions called the guidelines he rescinded outdated. So what date does he think this is? The eve of a pro-white, pro-male, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic, slave-owning nation? Just how far does AG Sessions want to set back the clock?
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This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. US voters have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. Our Fall Campaign is underway, and we need your help. To power our newsroom through the rest of the year, we need to raise $125,000 by midnight on October 31. So if you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
Pay no attention to what the media says about how undermined Jeff Sessions is. President Donald Trump may bait him publicly via tweet, but in private, at the Department of Justice, Sessions is a man on a mission to roll back civil rights. And that's just what he's doing.
Take what he did this July 3, quietly rescinding two dozen documents intended to make American institutions less racist.
The guidelines the AG scrapped included Obama-era guides on affirmative action that urged colleges to promote diversity for the benefit of the campus and the public good. Others reminded employers that asylum seekers have every right to work, and still others sought to head off another mortgage meltdown by warning brokers not to give predatory home loans to people without going through the fine print.
And Obama-era guidelines weren't the only ones Sessions withdrew. He also rescinded George W. Bush-era documents that reminded all Americans after 9-11 that discrimination on the basis of national origin is wrong.
The AG reached even further and nixed a Gerald Ford-era guide intended to keep kids out of adult prisons--and out of prison entirely for age-related offenses like truancy and drinking.
Rescinding these documents didn't make any new laws or repeal any old ones; the guides just sought to make existing law better understood. However, earlier this summer, the AG didwade into the law itself when he raised the bar for asylum seekers--mostly women--and took immigration decisions into his own hands and out of the courts.
In early June, Sessions ruled that domestic violence was, like gang crime, a "private crime," meaning its survivors are not considered members of any particular, at-risk social group. In an already decided case, he called on asylum seeker Aminta Cifuentes to prove that the Guatemalan government actively condoned what he called "private violence" when state police and law enforcement refused to intervene, even after her rapist husband doused her in turpentine and tried to set her alight.
In so-doing Sessions reversed a prior ruling on her case by an immigration appeal board.
On July 3, Sessions called the guidelines he rescinded outdated. So what date does he think this is? The eve of a pro-white, pro-male, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic, slave-owning nation? Just how far does AG Sessions want to set back the clock?
Pay no attention to what the media says about how undermined Jeff Sessions is. President Donald Trump may bait him publicly via tweet, but in private, at the Department of Justice, Sessions is a man on a mission to roll back civil rights. And that's just what he's doing.
Take what he did this July 3, quietly rescinding two dozen documents intended to make American institutions less racist.
The guidelines the AG scrapped included Obama-era guides on affirmative action that urged colleges to promote diversity for the benefit of the campus and the public good. Others reminded employers that asylum seekers have every right to work, and still others sought to head off another mortgage meltdown by warning brokers not to give predatory home loans to people without going through the fine print.
And Obama-era guidelines weren't the only ones Sessions withdrew. He also rescinded George W. Bush-era documents that reminded all Americans after 9-11 that discrimination on the basis of national origin is wrong.
The AG reached even further and nixed a Gerald Ford-era guide intended to keep kids out of adult prisons--and out of prison entirely for age-related offenses like truancy and drinking.
Rescinding these documents didn't make any new laws or repeal any old ones; the guides just sought to make existing law better understood. However, earlier this summer, the AG didwade into the law itself when he raised the bar for asylum seekers--mostly women--and took immigration decisions into his own hands and out of the courts.
In early June, Sessions ruled that domestic violence was, like gang crime, a "private crime," meaning its survivors are not considered members of any particular, at-risk social group. In an already decided case, he called on asylum seeker Aminta Cifuentes to prove that the Guatemalan government actively condoned what he called "private violence" when state police and law enforcement refused to intervene, even after her rapist husband doused her in turpentine and tried to set her alight.
In so-doing Sessions reversed a prior ruling on her case by an immigration appeal board.
On July 3, Sessions called the guidelines he rescinded outdated. So what date does he think this is? The eve of a pro-white, pro-male, anti-immigrant, anti-democratic, slave-owning nation? Just how far does AG Sessions want to set back the clock?