Jeff Sessions and the Long Attack on Voting Rights


This week the Senate opened its Cabinet confirmation hearings with Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, who is almost certain to become the next attorney general. As senators and journalists alike dug into Sessions' infamous record on voting rights, The Washington Post unearthed a letter thought lost to time.
In 1986, Coretta Scott King wrote the letter to oppose Sessions' nomination to be a federal judge. Her criticism was based in part on his prosecution of the "Marion Three" for voter fraud, a case widely thought to be racially motivated. As Sessions comes before the Senate for a fresh round of inquiry, her critique is as relevant as ever. She writes:
Anyone who has used his office to intimidate and chill citizens' free exercise of the ballot should not be elevated to our courts. If confirmed, Mr. Sessions will be given tenure for doing with a federal prosecution what the local sheriffs accomplished twenty years ago with clubs and cattle prods.
I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husband's dream.
Representative John Lewis, who ended the hearing this week by testifying against the Alabama senator, echoed her criticism. Flanked by other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Lewis reminded the Senate that "[w]e need someone as attorney general who is going to look out for all of us and not just for some of us."
In its efforts to defend Sessions, the Trump team passed out a dossier citing an article titled "How Black Democrats Stole Votes in Alabama And Jeff Sessions Tried To Stop It," written by Hans von Spakovsky.
As Jane Mayer detailed in a 2012 piece for The New Yorker, von Spakovsky has been peddling baseless myths of voter fraud and calling for voter-roll purges since at least 1997. And he has gained traction. Twenty states have enacted new voter restrictions since 2010. This year, 14 states had new restrictions in place for the first time in a presidential election.
Rep. Lewis himself said of von Spakovsky:
He's trying to create a cure where there is no sickness. He's been hellbent to make it more difficult for people to vote. I thought we'd passed this long ago — but it seems we must fight this fight over and over.
If, as Rep. Lewis says, we must indeed "fight this fight over and over," we remain inspired by the example of civil rights leaders and committed to the work ahead. The question is how long will it take to rebuild and ensure that every American has equal access to the ballot. How long?
The Editors
P.S. Here are a few other articles from this week that we think might interest you:




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