Judicial Nominations

Jeff Sessions Rants Against Judicial Nominees With 'ACLU DNA' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | December 21, 2010, 3:25PM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) railed against President Barack Obama's nominees to the federal bench on Tuesday afternoon, complaining that Obama was only nominating individuals with "ACLU DNA" and rattling off a list of potential judges who are now or have ever been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I'm sure that less than one percent of the lawyers in America are members of the ACLU," Sessions said. "It seems if you have the ACLU DNA, you get a pretty good leg up to being nominated by this president."

The ACLU -- which has over 500,000 members and supporters -- did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Don't Ask Don't Tell

Excuses, Excuses: Why Top GOPers Say They Can't Vote For DADT Repeal

Rachel Slajda | December 2, 2010, 3:06PM

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, Department of Defense General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson, and U.S. Army Gen. Carter Ham

In his opening statement at a Don't Ask, Don't Tell hearing today, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen systematically blew apart the classic attacks on repeal.

"Repeal of the law will not prove an unacceptable risk to military readiness. Unit cohesion will not suffer," Mullen said. "And families will not encourage their loved ones to leave the service in droves."

"And I find the argument that war is not the time to change to be antithetical with our own experience since 2001," he said. "War does not stifle change; it demands it."

He destroyed Sen. John McCain's suggestion that the opinions of the service chiefs were more important than those of Mullen. McCain had said Mullen "is not directly in charge of the troops."

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Jeff Sessions

Republicans Attack Justice Department Ethics Office

Justin Elliott | February 26, 2010, 10:55AM

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

The two top Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee went after the DOJ's ethics office today, blasting the torture memo report produced by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

"The first report was filled with gaping holes, shoddy legal analysis .. and a clear desire to punish Mr. Yoo and Mr. Bybee even if the facts didn't support it," said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) in his opening statement.

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