Tag Archives: jeff sessions

Discipline before rule of law

As most of you know by now, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last night.  He commissioned a rationale from the Department of Justice, which he presented to Comey with a cover letter from Attorney General Sessions.

Here is the first sentence of Sessions’s letter:

As Attorney General, I am committed to a high level of discipline, integrity, and the rule of law to the Department of Justice.

Discipline first; rule of law third.

This is inconsistent with the oath of a civil servant, whose first duty is to the rule of law:

I, ——–, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

The attorney general takes that same oath.  (TW:  This links to the swearing in of Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which may cause fatal levels of nostalgia for the decency, fairness, and the rule of law.)

Hell, even the oath Sessions took to become an attorney in Alabama requires him to support the United States Constitution (albeit second to the Alabama Constitution — I suppose just in case they secede again) and nowhere speaks of “discipline.”

I, ————, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will demean myself as an attorney, according to the best of my learning and ability, and with all good fidelity, as well to the court as to the client; that I will use no falsehood or delay any person’s cause for lucre or malice, and that I will support the constitution of the State of Alabama and of the United States, so long as I continue a citizen thereof, so help me God.

I was interested to learn that Sessions has also sworn not to “delay any person’s cause for lucre or malice.”  Let’s see how that plays out in the Trump/Russia investigation.

Ultimately, Sessions is a mean, insecure, racist punk.  His need for discipline reveals a lifetime spent fearing independent or abstract thought, essential to support and defend principles instead of people.  He’s the one of those little shits who always surround the school bully, egging him on.  Vincent Crabbe or Gregory Goyle to Trump’s Draco Malfoy.

Image: four wizards from Harry Potter, middle school-age kids in black academic robes. All white. Second from left is Draco Malfoy, blond and sneering. To either side and slightly behind him are his sidekicks.

Things that will scare you into voting for Obama

This is so scary I should have followed Jamie Raskin’s lead and posted it on Halloween.  Ready?

“Justice Robert Bork” — nuf said.

“Justice Jeffrey Sutton” — worked hard against enforceability of the ADA (as counsel for the University in Garrett) and Medicaid regs (counsel for the state in Westside Mothers) when he was in private practice.

“Justice Jefferson Beauregard* Sessions”  — rejected for a federal judgeship based on racist remarks; later elected to the Senate from Alabama, where that is apparently an essential function of the job.

“Justice John Ashcroft” — I know, right?

“Justice Paul Clement” — left King & Spalding when it dropped its defense of the Defense [sic] of Marriage [sic] Act to join the firm that  congressional Republicans hired to defend DOMA.

“Justice Steven Colloton”  — he’s actually a really nice guy, but he was my law school classmate, and having him on the Supreme Court would make me feel really old.
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* I did not invent that name.  I swear.