Jeff Sessions Archives - Public Seminar

Migration

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Both political parties say they care about families—so why would the Biden administration return to a family separation regime?

April 19, 2023 • by Rachel Ida Buff

And yet, in the absence of new legislation that makes it easier to cross the border legally for work, the Biden administration has defaulted to a hard line on immigration that continues to separate families and promote border security. ...

The Violence of American Border Policies Continues

Democracy

A Battle for the Soul of the Nation

A rising number of White House–related COVID cases exposes a presidency in collapse

October 8, 2020 • by Heather Cox Richardson

All weeek, COVID-19 infections have continued to mount in the vicinity of the Oval Office. At least 34 people near Trump have tested positive for the virus in the past few days. The White House press corps is down to a skeleton crew as Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany and four ...

Activism

What Will It Take for Black Lives to Matter?

Nonviolent, cross-racial coalitions are the way back to a decent America

July 9, 2020 • by Todd Gitlin

I wrote the article that follows three years ago. Since it first appeared in the American Prospect, Black Lives Matter (BLM) has generated the largest protest movement in American history. What has changed? And what hasn’t? It remains true that the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) is ill-defined. It has rough edges ...

What Will It Take for Black Lives to Matter?

Past Present

Social Media Deplatforming

Past Present Podcast, Episode 236

July 7, 2020 • by Nicole Hemmer, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Social media platforms like Reddit are taking a harder line on regulating extremist content. Natalia referred to this article about the undisclosed relationship between Ben Shapiro’s conservative sites and Facebook, and to this Vice piece about the effectiveness of social ...

Feature

Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

The Trump administration’s inhumane approach to immigration

July 12, 2018 • by Siobhan Kattago

Reactions to Donald Trump’s immigration policies -- whether in the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Muslim ban, rejection of domestic and gang violence as valid reasons for asylum or, more pointedly, the separation of families seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border, have primarily focused on the architects of such policies ...

Moral Blindness and Immigration in America

Feature

The Pathology of Zero Tolerance

Trump administration and its treatment of immigrants

June 22, 2018 • by Sarah Sklaw

Spend enough time in Hebrew school and you may come to fear showers. This euphemism for gas chambers might haunt you. Your ears might prick up at the mention of cleanliness, as you ask what kind of “hygiene” is being promised and to whom? In detention centers in South Texas, Border Patrol ...

Migration

A Civics Lesson for Trump and Sessions

Sanctuary Cities and the Trump Administration

April 25, 2018 • by John Lawrence

As if we needed any further reminders of the reckless disregard for law and the Constitution rampant in the Trump Era, a panel of Republican federal judges has forcefully rejected efforts to punish so-called Sanctuary Cities by curtailing federal grant funds. It is a fair barometer to assume that when ...

Blue Monday

The Fables of Our Faubus

Jeff Sessions, man of justice

March 12, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington Jefferson Beauregard Sessions has fallen on hard times. A celebrated Alabamian and Man of the South, he came out for Donald Trump long before any other national Republican politician, and then gave up his very ...

Multi Media

The First 100 Days, Hawaii, and FGM

Past Present: Episode 81

May 4, 2017 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Neil J. Young and Nicole Hemmer

In this week's episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki debate Trump's first 100 days, the history of Hawaii, and the rise of female genital mutilation in the United States. Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: April 29 marked the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. Although ...

Feature

In Defense of Sanctuary

The negation of a movement

April 17, 2017 • by Abou Farman

As the lights went out on the administration’s anti-healthcare initiative, Jeff Sessions, like the ringmaster of a three-ring circus, made a sudden appearance out from the darkness to train the spotlight once more onto sanctuary cities and bark about their criminal inhabitants, otherwise known as immigrants. Sanctuary policies, he claimed, ...

Race

A Brief History into Jeff Session’s Past U.S. Attorney Experience in Alabama

An Open Letter to Representative Jerrold Nadler

January 18, 2017 • by Jo Freeman

The Hon. Jerrold Nadler 2109 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 Dear Jerry: Even though confirmation of Jeff Sessions to be the Attorney General is not a House function, as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, I know you are concerned with who heads the DoJ. Therefore I want to give you a little ...

Feature

The Room Where It Happens

Jeff Sessions Testifies

January 11, 2017 • by Claire Potter

If any of Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees are turned back, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is not going to be among them. Sessions, at the age of 70 still the "junior" Senator from Alabama, was one of three nominees to begin the confirmation process yesterday. While he faced skepticism, and even anger, ...