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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?
Jul 06, 2018
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 He also rescinded George W. Bush-era documents that reminded all Americans after 9-11 that discrimination on the basis of national origin is wrong.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On July 3, Sessions called the guidelines he rescinded outdated.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?
An Unconstitutional Rampage
Trump and Musk are on an unconstitutional rampage, aiming for virtually every corner of the federal government. These two right-wing billionaires are targeting nurses, scientists, teachers, daycare providers, judges, veterans, air traffic controllers, and nuclear safety inspectors. No one is safe. The food stamps program, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are next. It’s an unprecedented disaster and a five-alarm fire, but there will be a reckoning. The people did not vote for this. The American people do not want this dystopian hellscape that hides behind claims of “efficiency.” Still, in reality, it is all a giveaway to corporate interests and the libertarian dreams of far-right oligarchs like Musk. Common Dreams is playing a vital role by reporting day and night on this orgy of corruption and greed, as well as what everyday people can do to organize and fight back. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. |
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Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
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?
Laura Flanders
Laura Flanders interviews forward-thinking people about the key questions of our time on The Laura Flanders Show, a nationally syndicated radio and television program also available as a podcast. A contributing writer to The Nation, Flanders is also the author of six books, including "Bushwomen: How They Won the White House for Their Man" (2005). She is the recipient of a 2019 Izzy Award for excellence in independent journalism, the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award for advancing women's and girls' visibility in media, and a 2020 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship for her reporting and advocacy for public media. lauraflanders.org
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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