When President-elect Donald Trump nominated US Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be the next attorney general, the institutional outcry came nearly immediately. The New York Times editorial board called the pick “an insult to justice.” The NAACP declared him unfit to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer. And it wasn’t just civil rights leaders—civil libertarians expressed a few fears of their own.
There were immediate fears also raised by those who advocate for cannabis legalization as well as those who count themselves among the 122,814 Americans who work in the legal cannabis industry. The Obama administration allowed the adult-use laws in Colorado and Washington state to proceed, based on the 2013 Cole memo. But that memo was just a memo. It interpreted the law and established policy. It did not establish federal legality.
Jeff Sessions is no friend of cannabis, legal or otherwise. He famously declared, during a Senate hearing in April 2016, that “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” He added: “We need grownups in Washington to say marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought not to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger.”
Supporting Sessions is, of course, President-elect Trump, along with nearly all of his Republican colleagues. A large number of law enforcement organizations have also endorsed Sessions. That, according to Politico, makes him a lock for confirmation. And unless some bombshell evidence emerges over the next two days of Senate confirmation hearings, Sessions is, indeed, very likely to be confirmed.
If you’re reading Leafly, you’re probably interested in the Sessions hearings for their cannabis-related content. But you can’t sit through two days of testimony to get it. Allow us to be your eyes and ears. Deputy Editor Bruce Barcott and editor Ben Adlin will be monitoring the hearings, posting regular updates, and highlighting whatever cannabis content may emerge.
Honestly, we’re not expecting much. The Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking member, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), has a strong track record of supporting reasonable cannabis legal reform. But Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has long opposed what he sees as all this nonsense about marijuana. For years, Grassley has blocked any move to reform banking laws that keep the legal cannabis industry largely a cash-only business. And Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the committee’s high-ranking California Democrat, has for years opposed the will of her state’s citizens and stood against both medical and adult-use legalization.
Check back with us over the coming two days. We’ll keep rolling updates, newest first.
6:14 — Chuck Grassley, mercifully, calls the first day’s proceedings to a close. That’s it, we’re done, see you back here at 9:30am tomorrow morning. Remember to pack a lunch.
Sen. Hirono: DOJ consent decrees matter.
5:51 — Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono is emerging as one of the real ass kickers of this committee. After the award B.S., Hirono brings the hearing straight back to one of the most pressing serious issues in America today: Police actions and accountability. She asks Sessions about the DOJ’s ongoing consent decrees with 20 police departments around the United States. Consent decrees are agreements reached between DOJ and a police department that require the department to enact serious reforms, following a pattern of abuse or other unconstitutional behavior. They are one of the few mechanisms available to cities and their citizens to force police reform. Sessions has spoken out in the past against consent decrees, and his opposition to them gives you a hint about why so many police organizations and unions have lined up to support Sessions. Hirono asks Sessions: Will you uphold these decrees? Sessions says yes, he will, but then goes on about his worries that consent decrees “create the impression that the entire police department is not doing their work consistent with fidelity to fairness and the law.” Which is an amazing statement to make. Because the purpose of consent decrees is to force police departments to improve after they’ve been shown to, in fact, fail to do their work consistent with fidelity to fairness and the law. Sessions’s main concern isn’t for the citizens abused by their police officers. It’s for the emotional well being of the police officers, who might feel a tiny bit ashamed about the consistent pattern of illegal actions taken by their department. For more on consent decrees, see The Marshall Project’s report here.
5:38 — Chuck Grassley ends the silliness over the Horowitz award by grabbing the mic and saying, in so many words: Look. We’re senators. We all get dozens of bullshit awards every year, we toss ’em in a storage locker somewhere outside of Sioux City and forget we even “won” them. Okay? Okay.
5:27 — Wait, what? How did David Horowitz enter the conversation?! Sen. Blumenthal accuses Sessions of accepting a 2014 award from the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which is seen in some circles as being an anti-Muslim organization. Fun fact: Horowitz, a famous leader of the New Left in the 1960s, converted to the neoconservative cause in the 1980s. Funner fact: During the late 1980s, Horowitz appeared alongside essayist Christopher Hitchens on Lewis Lapham’s PBS books show. The argument grew heated, and continued in the hall after the show. The two men nearly came to blows. Hitchens ended it by spitting on Horowitz and storming out of the building. It was not The Hitch’s finest moment.
5:17 — Delaware Sen. Coons asks Sessions if he would be in favor of a national registry of Muslims. Sessions: “No. I would not favor that.”
Not enjoying the Al Franken show.
4:57 — Franken on fire! “Okay, here’s the thing,” he says. Franken proceeds to school Sessions on the Voting Rights Act, why it was necessary, why it’s still necessary today, and how Texas, North Carolina, and other states have and continue to actively work to suppress the African-American vote. Point, Franken.
4:52 — Franken rescues himself by connecting his earlier statement to the problem of voter suppression, which is often justified by claims of voter fraud without any evidence. A federal court recently ruled that this sort of operation in North Carolina specifically targeted African Americans, with the goal of keeping them from voting. Sessions: “You cannot create laws designed to prevent any class of citizens from exercising their right to vote.” He says he’s not familiar with the details of the ruling and the North Carolina law. Which, if true, is actually one of the most damning pieces of evidence against Jeff Sessions we’ve heard today.
4:49 — Oh, save us Baby Jesus. Sen. Franken is back with his fact-checking seminar. Now he’s asking Jeff Sessions to defend one of Donald Trump’s factless statements. Which one? It doesn’t really matter. There are so many. Basically, it sounds like Franken is intent on proving that Donald Trump says untrue things. Which, sadly, at this point in American history is like observing that Donald Trump has funny hair.
4:45 — Sen. John Cornyn of Texas raises privacy and national security issues. Wants Sessions’ verbal commitment to “put the safety and security of the American people first.” This seems like a backhanded way of countering Patrick Leahy’s effort to exact a pledge from Sessions to follow the law when it comes to wiretapping, phone records and data collection. Then, confusingly, Cornyn follows up with a question defending the Freedom of Information Act and “the public’s right to know.” We understand nothing about John Cornyn.
4:32 — Sen. Klobuchar, noting that Backpage.com shut down its adult advertising section yesterday, asks Sessions about the problem of sex trafficking. Sessions says the fight against sex trafficking will be “an important part of the Department of Justice’s priorities,” and he looks forward to making “a real impact on this abominable practice.”
4:26 — Cruz snarkily challenges “our friends in the media” to cover the story of Sessions overseeing the prosecution of two KKK members in an Alabama murder case. Dude, please. Google “Jeff Sessions KKK murder case.” You’ll find page after page of links to coverage: Time, WeeklyStandard, DailyBeast, CNN, Fortune, Washington Monthly, The Atlantic, The Hill, Salon, USA Today, ABC News. How much more coverage can Cruz’s friends in the media give this story?
Ted Cruz’s tie is more patriotic than yours.
4:23 — Ted Cruz reappears to commend the committee’s Democratic members for refraining from asking Sessions difficult questions. Even Cruz’s tie is offensive. Seriously.
4:18 — That sound you just heard were hundreds of millions of eyes popping upon hearing Jeff Sessions utter a defense of facts and truth: “Truth is not sufficiently respected.” Whether you voted for Trump or Clinton, at this point it is ridiculous to argue that Trump did not gain votes, and thus power, from the dissemination of “fake news” on social media. And fake facts from the mouth of President-elect Trump himself. Senator, please.
4:15 — Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse raises concerns about the targeting of Obama-era staff members of the Department of Justice. Sessions: “To target people, and demean them, if they were fine public servants and carrying out the law, that would be wrong.”
4:11 — Whether you’re for him or against him, one thing is emerging today: Jeff Sessions is a lock for confirmation. The only thing that could sink him now is an Anita Hill-size surprise witness. There are plenty of witnesses lined up for tomorrow’s hearing, but none of that stature, with that kind of bombshell. That we know of.
3:57 — Sen. Grassley gives everybody a 15-minute break. See you back here at 4:15. We’re gonna run out to Jiffy Lube and change the awl in our car.
3:49 — Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, the newbie, makes a joke about his name, which is probably the bazillionth time he’s made that joke. And it’s not a very good joke. Al Franken could punch it up in about ten seconds. Kennedy thinks he’s going to be remembered as The Other John Kennedy, but after today he’s going to be remembered as that senator who takes the word Muslim and tangles it into “Moose-limb.”
3:44 — Sen. Feinstein asks about a report in today’s Washington Post about some mineral rights Sessions owns in Alabama This gives Sessions the opportunity to pronounce the word oil as “awl” a number of times, which is mildly pleasing. Otherwise nobody cares about the oil rights under a duck refuge in some backwater county in Alabama.
3:14 — Hatch’s performance here sent a shock of memory through the old noggin. Yes, as a matter of fact it was Orrin Hatch who defended Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas against the testimony of Anita Hill way back in 1991. Let me see if I can find the video…
3:13 — Sen. Orrin Hatch offers Sessions, metaphorically, a personal service that is best enjoyed in private among consenting adults. Good lord. Too bad Hatch is unable to muster the vigor to put difficult questions to a nominee appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
3:13 — MORE CANNABIS. Sen. Mike Lee follows up with a question about federalism. “We’ve seen new attention paid to it,” he says, “but in the limited area associated with marijuana.” Did the way the Obama administration handled marijuana legalization sit well with you, in terms of both federalism and the separation of powers. Did the DOJ’s decision to not prosecute cannabis sellers and consumers in legalized states “contravene the understanding that Congress is the lawmaking body?”
Sessions responds: “One obvious concern is that Congress has made the possession of marijuana in every state an illegal act. If that is not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change it. It’s not the attorney general’s job to decide which laws to enforce. We should enforce the laws as effectively as we are able.”
This is correct in theory, but in practice the Department of Justice has limited resources, and its leaders decide which areas of law to emphasize and which cases to prosecute, and which to ignore. That applies to federal cannabis laws just as much as it does to insider trading laws, banking laws, antitrust laws, and other areas where large room for prosecutorial discretion exists.
3:08 — CANNABIS ALERT! Leahy gets to it: “Regarding states rights. states have also voted on the issue of marijuana. Your own state of Alabama permits a derivative of marijuana known as CBD oil. Which is legal in Alabama, but illegal under federal law. If you are confirmed as the nation’s chief law enforcement official, you know we have very limited federal resources. Would you use our federal resources to investigate and prosecute sick people who are using marijuana in accordance with their state laws?”
Sessions answers: “I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law. But absolutely, it’s a problem of resources for the federal government. The Department of Justice under Lynch and Holder set forth some policies they thought were appropriate regarding states that have legalized in some fashion.” He added that there has been criticism of those policies, “some of them are truly valuable, but fundamentally the criticism that I find legitimate is that they [the Cole memo guidelines] may not have been followed. Using judgment in how to handle these cases will be mine, and I will do it in a fair and just way.”
Leahy: “In the past you have called for the death penalty for second-time marijuana offenders.”
Sessions: “That doesn’t sound like something I’d normally say.”
Leahy: “Would you say that’s not your view today?”
Sessions: “That is not my view today.”
3:01 — Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, appearing today in the role of Grand Old Man of the Senate, takes over. Sen. Leahy brought his sharp knives. He proceeds to show his junior colleagues how it’s done. (Al Franken, take note.)
2:53 — Utah Sen. Mike Lee asks Sessions about the use of guidance documents. “Will the Department of Justice use guidance documents as a matter of course?” This is an important issue w/r/t cannabis legalization, as the DOJ’s Cole memo, issued by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, allowed adult-use legalization to proceed in Colorado and Washington state. “A guidance document can be beneficial,” Sessions says. But “a guidance document cannot amend the law. Bureaucrats do no have the ability to rewrite the law to make it say what they’d like it to say. Congress makes the laws, not the executive branch.”
2:48 — Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono asks about immigration and abortion. “The problem as I see it with Roe v. Wade is it denies people the right to enact the laws that they feel appropriate,” says Sessions.
2:06 — Oh, Lordy. Ted Cruz is in the house. Sen. Cruz, upon taking control of the microphone, proceeds to show the nation exactly why he is famously the most hated member of the Senate among his fellow senators. Cruz, alone among the committee members, uses the platform to grandstand and foment, slamming all of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee for going along, “silently,” with the Obama administration when the White House disregarded the rule of law. It’s a real stemwinder. The look on Jeff Sessions’ face is priceless. It’s as if he’s watching a full grown man burst into church and launch into a drunken rant against the pastor, the choir director, and every usher in attendance. For the record: Sen. Cruz does not appear to be drunk.
1:59 — We’re back! Invigorated by a hearty lunch, Delaware Sen. Christopher Coons addresses Alabama’s abysmal record of prisoner mistreatment, including the use of chain gangs and the “hitching post,” which is not used to tether horses, up until the far too recent past. Sessions punts on the gruesome hitching post detail, but says “I think good employment of a prisoner is a healthy thing.” He adds, “I do not favor this kind of work,” referring to chain gangs. Coons also addresses Sessions’ opposition to sentencing reform, despite clear evidence of the racial disparities inherent in things like mandatory minimums and three strikes laws. The nominee then alarmingly connects his claimed “rise in crime” with the idea that “sentences are down 19 percent already.”
LUNCH BREAK
1:11 — Surprise move by Chairman Grassley, who calls a quick 30-minute recess for lunch. Back here at 1:39 sharp, people. Your tardy slips won’t save you.
1:03 — Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who will be played in the movie by Jeff Daniels, softly asks about border security and puts in a plug for his state’s program on same. Nothing to see here. Moving on.
12:59 — Parson Grassley tells everyone that Sunday school will continue for another hour. (!!!) We’ll roll straight through to 2:09, then break for lunch, then reconvene at 2:39. Apparently everyone on the committee will be dining at Jimmy John’s today. Freaky fast, people.
12:50 — Sen. Franken (D-SNL) goes with the proven losing strategy known as Fact Check The Nominee To Death. Memo to Al: It never works. Franken tries to pin Sessions on his claim that he brought “20 to 30” civil rights cases as a US attorney. But there weren’t that many, were there? Sessions laughs: “It was extraordinarily difficult to get a record by checking the docket sheet by checking exactly how many cases were involved.” Water off a duck’s back. Franken presses Sessions on his claim to have “personally handled” on voting rights cases and desegregation cases. Franken is technically correct here, but politically it’s not a huge winner. “It was 30 years ago, and my memory was my support for those cases,” says the nominee. Point, Sessions. The 99 percent of Americans who are neither lawyers nor fact checkers for The New Yorker will side with the Alabama gentleman on this one.
12:47 — Al Franken! Finally! The senator from Minnesota takes the mic.
Ben Sasse, pride of the corn state.
12:43 — Sen. Ben Sasse, who gets our vote for the handsomest man in Nebraska, asks Sessions whether there are instances in which it is appropriate to not enforce a certain law. If we had a CANNABIS ALERT alarm we could ring, we would ring it now. But Sessions avoids that part of it, preferring instead to apply the question to the issue of immigration. His answer was so vague and inconclusive that it failed to stick in any portion of anybody’s brain. We will have to move on.
12:41 — Just a reminder, folks: Ted Cruz and Al Franken are both members of this committee, and their turns on the mic should be coming up soon. So there may be greater entertainment ahead.
12:37 —Klobuchar is trying hard to pin Sessions on issues of concern re civil rights and voting rights, but it seems like her ingrained Minnesota urge to politeness and civility prevents her from going full Ted Kennedy on her former colleague. To see how it’s done properly, when required, take a couple minutes and check out Kennedy’s successful effort to defeat Robert Bork’s Supreme Court nomination back in 1987.
Sen. Klobuchar: Concerns over voter ID laws.
12:32 — Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar tries to put Sessions’ feet to the fire on the Voting Rights Act, and voter ID laws that aimed at depressing the vote by people of color. Sessions punts to the usual “there’s going to be debate about that” and says Congress and the courts must settle those issues. Of course, the Department of Justice decides which cases to prosecute, when there are Voting Rights Act violations. So it does fall under his responsibilities. “I think voter ID laws, properly drafted, are OK,” Sessions says.
12:27 — Coming up on hour three of these hearings. Sessions, like a great starting pitcher, seems to only grow stronger in the later innings. He’s actually enjoying himself. Which isn’t that surprising, given the relatively soft nature of the questions. They haven’t been completely uncritical, but nobody’s grilled him with tough followups. Remember: Everyone on this Senate committee served with Sessions as their colleague on this very committee up until, oh, about seven hours ago.
US Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
11:38 — Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) addresses the nation’s drug laws for the first time today. Seven years ago he and Sessions co-sponsored the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the outrageous disparity between sentencing guidelines for crack and powder cocaine. Durbin criticizes Sessions for not going further and pressing to have the act applied to people currently serving those outrageous sentences for crack. “You said that so-called low level nonviolent offenders simply do not exist in the federal prison system,” says Durbin. They do exist, Durbin insists. And they are continuing to suffer under those draconian drug laws. Sessions defends himself by saying that he doesn’t want to “upset finality in the justice system.”
11:27 — Sessions is asked about Guantanamo Bay. He answers: “It’s a safe place to keep prisoners. We’ve invested a lot of money in that, and it should be utilized in that fashion.” Not sure that sunk economic cost is the best way to defend Gitmo, but at least now we know his position. Meanwhile, the mention of Gitmo sparks a gallery shouter. Sessions revisits his water glass.
11:25 — US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) takes the microphone to praise college football. Well played, senator. Courage.
11:10 — Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah makes it clear what really matters in his home state: Porn! He wants pornography treated “as a public health issue.” He tells Sessions he wants the Department of Justice to re-constitute a specific unit to prosecute obscenity laws. Sessions seems taken a little by surprise. He was unaware that DOJ had disbanded its obscenity flying squad. Presumably because nobody but Orrin Hatch pays attention to the pressing national crisis surrounding the lack of obscenity law prosecutions.
10:54 — Sessions pledges to recuse himself from any potential investigation of Hillary Clinton, her emails, and the Clinton Foundation.
10:52 — Sen. Grassley takes a shot at the Obama administration for failing to “perform fundamental functions of law.” Not sure if this is partly in reference to cannabis laws and the Cole memo. But it sure sounds like it. Sessions: “Once passed, I will do my dead level best to assure a law is fairly and properly enforced.”
10:47 — Sen. Grassley asks Sessions if he’s going to be Trump’s “wingman.” Well? Are ya? Sessions: “No.” Grassley: “Will you be able to stand up and say no to the President of the United States if the law and your duty demands it?” Sessions says he will.
10:41 —Sessions directly addressed the Marion Three controversy. “These are false charges,” he says. The voter fraud case “was in response to please from African Americans.” As to the KKK, Sessions says, he “abhors” the group and its “hateful ideology,” and points to his work on a KKK murder case, which ended in a life sentence for one Klan member and a death sentence for another.
10:30 — The nominee hits a number of notes that lay out his priorities. Illegal drugs “flood across our southern border, bringing violence, addiction, and mayhem.” Police officers across the nation find themselves “unfairly maligned and blamed” for the unacceptable actions of a few bad actors. “Morale has suffered. Last year the number of police officers killed in the line of duty increased by 10 percent over 2015.” Local law enforcement officers “must know they’re supported” by the federal government. Strengthening federal-local police ties and relationships will be “one of my priority objectives.” Pledges to protect Americans from the “scourge of radical Islamic terrorism,” thereby formally using the contentious phrase.
10:29 — Sessions raises something that sounds like it will be a theme of his this week: a rise in the national crime rate. “A four percent increase in all crime,” he says. “Murders increasing 11 percent,” with outrageous numbers of shooting victims in Chicago and Baltimore. “The country is also in the throes of a heroin epidemic,” he says.
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10:27 — Another gallery shouter. Another pause and sip. Could be a lot of hydration going on this morning.
10:26 — Sessions is interrupted by a gallery shouter. “No Trump, no KKK!” Security takes care of it. Sessions calmly pauses, takes a sip of water.
10:22 — Microphone back on. Sessions introduces rest of his family. He has children and grandchildren. They look like fine people. Sessions declares that he is proud of his grandchildren. Sounds like they all had a great time at the beach this summer. Moves on to politics. Notes that every major law enforcement group has endorsed him.
10:21 — Sessions begins by introducing his family. His microphone is not working. A senate staff audio-visual technician is about to get fired.
10:20 — Jeff Sessions arrives for his opening statement. You’ve seen him. The man looks like a delightful elvin grandfather. He’s rocking a beautiful gray suit, a red tie, and snowy white hair.
10:15 — Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) takes the baton from Shelby. She likes Sessions “as a trusted collegue, and personally as a good friend.” Vouches for him as “a person of integrity, a principled leader, and a dedicated public servant.”
10:01 — Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby formally introduces Sessions. Tells his hometown story. It’s heartwarming.
9:55 — Feinstein makes first mention of the Marion Three case. Much more of that to come later in the day. Good backgrounder on the case in The Nation.
9:50 — Sen. Dianne Feinstein expresses many reservations. “The attorney general must put aside loyalty to the President;. He must assure that the law and the Constitution comes first and foremost, period.”
9:31am EST — Sen. Chuck Grassley, rocking his inimitable 1920s parson style, gets the party started. The committee chairman assures everyone that there is no set closing time.“I’m prepared to stay here as long as members have questions they’d like to ask,” he says. Not sure if this is reassuring or ominous.
Grassley makes it clear that he’s a friend of Jeff Sessions, and intends to move him through the confirmation hearing quickly and cleanly. “We’re here today to review the character and the qualifications of a colleague who has served alongside us in the Senate for twenty years. We know him well.” Sessions, says Grassley, “is wonderful to work with. We know him to be a man of his word.”
Grassley makes a point of mentioning Sessions’ role in prosecuting a KKK member for murder. The Atlantic has a good backgrounder on that here.