Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions will face his peers on the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee today as he begins confirmation to become the next U.S. Attorney General.
Last night, members of the NAACP continued protests and prayer vigils outside Sessions’ Alabama offices. The organization has criticized Sessions' stance on civil rights, immigration, criminal justice reform and voting rights enforcement.
During confirmation hearings today, Democrats on the committee are expected to thoroughly challenge Sessions on his commitment to civil rights, and press him on his conservative views on immigration. But Republicans have expressed support for Alabama’s junior senator, and Sessions is expected to have the necessary votes to secure a job as the country’s top law enforcement official.
Before Sessions was elected to the Senate in 1996, he served as Alabama’s attorney general as well as a United States attorney.
If confirmed, Sessions would succeed the current Attorney General, Loretta Lynch.