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Jeff Sessions will surely go down in history as one of the more memorable Cabinet members of the modern era, having been famously bashed by President Donald Trump in the glare of social media for most of his time as U.S. attorney general.
But what will be the Sessions legacy? Will he stand out for upholding rule of law and gracefully enduring relentless White House pressure? Or will he be judged with contempt for his pursuit of hardline policies at the Department of Justice, from marijuana crackdowns to separating families at the border?
“His dispute with Trump or Trump’s repeated tongue lashings of the attorney general is simply what dominated the news and the public’s thinking of Jeff Sessions,” said Jess Brown of Athens State University. “But really, as attorney general, there won’t be much of a legacy other than he held to the ethical standards of his profession and was punished by the president for doing so.”
Sessions became the first Alabamian to serve as U.S. Attorney General, and one of a handful of Alabamians to serve in a presidential cabinet. Perhaps the most notable was William King, the 13th Vice President of the United States who served under President Franklin Pierce for just 45 days before he died in office in 1853.
Frank Knaack, executive director of the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, said Sessions stood in stark contrast to his predecessor, Eric Holder – a proponent of criminal justice reform who relaxed enforcement of marijuana laws.
“His legacy at DOJ will be that he really doubled down on failed policies – particularly the failed war on drugs and policing for profit,” Knaack said.
Strained relationship
Sessions survived almost two years, outlasting many of his fellow cabinet members who swept into office in 2016 and swept back out in a series of high-profile firings and sudden resignations.
The relationship between Sessions and the president grew strained, even torturous, after Sessions in March of 2017 recused himself from overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Never in 40 years of closely watching national politics have I seen a more loyal and effective cabinet member so mistreated for so little reason by the president he served,” said Quin Hillyer, a conservative columnist based in Mobile. “I think it would be better if Trump kept Sessions and stop blaming him for something that is not Sessions fault.”
From Twitter barbs to closed-door lashings, the troubled relationship with Trump looms over Sessions’ public legacy. Trump, amid calls for Sessions to shut down Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, reportedly even called the attorney general a “dumb southerner.”
Hillyer instead called him an “excellent attorney general on most fronts.” Fellow GOP politicians from Alabama, including most of the Alabama congressional delegation, offered a slew of well wishes and compliments on the day Sessions resigned.
U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, said he believes Sessions will be remembered for restoring the Justice Department’s reputation as “the enforcers of law instead of being someone out there trying to make new law.”
Said Byrne: “He has returned the Justice Department to that role of professionalism.”
‘Tough on crime’
Indeed, among many conservatives, the attorney general is viewed as instrumental in putting Trump’s “tough on crime” agenda into practice.
As attorney general, Sessions rolled back an Obama-era policy to avoid prosecuting low-level drug crimes. Sessions last year also praised a move by Trump to allow police access to surplus military equipment.
Sessions, long outspoken in opposition to marijuana decriminalization, signaled that federal authorities could crack down on states where voters had legalized recreational marijuana.
Sessions also praised the use of civil badet forfeitures, which have been criticized in states like Alabama for unduly punishing low-level criminals. He called the practice a tool to “weaken” drug cartels.
“He motivated prosecutors and law enforcement officials to unite in an aggressive strategy to make our streets safer and he was successful in leading that effort,” said Richard Moore, the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
But those same policies drew criticism independent of Trump or Russia or even partisan politics.
But Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, said the Sessions Justice Department was more “tough” in talk than in action when it came to most issues, other than immigration.
“I don’t think he was ever planning to do that, in cracking down on marijuana,” said Fording. “You’re talking about states moving away from decriminalization. I think he occasionally said things that would please the president because of the Mueller problem, but they were not things he ended up doing.”
Civil rights
Sessions took office as U.S. Attorney General with a history of hostility toward legal reformers and watchdogs, such as the ACLU. That history resurfaced during confirmation hearings in early 2017, sparking staged protests by the NAACP outside his Mobile office and producing some contentious moments before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In 1986, when Sessions served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, he was nominated for a federal judgeship. A lawyer who worked with Sessions testified that Sessions described the ACLU as “unAmerican” in an incident Sessions dismissed as a joke.
In the same hearing, an badistant U.S. attorney said Sessions used racially insensitive language. The then-nominee also fought charges that he targeted African-American activists in the Black Belt in a controversial voter fraud case.
Sessions failed to win confirmation as a judge and would instead go on to win election as Alabama Attorney General and later Senator. His supporters, over the years, have said that criticism of Sessions over his views on race and civil rights have been overblown. They often point to his past as a federal attorney, when he badisted in the prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1980s.
But during that same time as a federal prosecutor, Sessions hardline beliefs clearly extended beyond tough talk, resulting in arrests and incarceration in south Alabama.
Fred Richardson, a Mobile City Councilman and author, said Sessions’ drug war prosecutions in the 1980s decimated the city’s African-American community. Based on research he conducted for a book about Mobile’s Civil Rights struggle, he said the prosecutor pursued cases against hundreds of people accused of conspiracy to traffic drugs, based mostly on the testimony of informants angling for leniency. The U.S. Attorney’s Office often pursued life sentences against those convicted of offenses involving crack cocaine.
“He has sent more than 700 people to prison and none of them had one grain,” Richardson said. “Not one grain. He sent them on conspiracy.”
Richardson said he had recently been on an official trip with Sessions and found the former attorney general to be gracious and friendly. Yet he believes Sessions, who grew up the son of store owner in the small town of Hybart in south Alabama, still holds antiquated beliefs about people of color.
“In his heart, I believe he figured there was a place for black people and it was not side-by-side with whites,” Richardson said. “He’s named Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Beauregard was a general in the Confederate army. He was a general. Jefferson was Jefferson Davis. He was the head of the Confederacy. They didn’t want to leave no doubt but who that boy was. They named him Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.”
Richardson said he believes Sessions has not changed much over the years.
NAACP protests outside Jeff Sessions’ office: “Reject Sessions, Reject Oppression”
“We’ve got open borders all around us, but when you get down there with people of color, we don’t want a way for them to come into this country,” Richardson said. “From what I see, he’s still focusing on people of color. His major focus is on people of color and drugs.”
Immigration
Sessions began his quest to curb illegal immigration in America in 2000, and later found himself the chief opponent of bipartisan immigration reforms in the U.S. Senate.
It was that outspoken stance that drew he and Trump together.
Sessions, an early advisor to Trump’s campaign, first appeared publicly with Trump on August 21, 2015, during a campaign rally at Mobile’s Ladd-Peebles Stadium. It was there where a smiling Sessions had a “Make America Great Again” ballcap placed on him by Trump.
Sessions endorsed Trump for president during a campaign rally in north Alabama in February 2016, becoming the first sitting Senator and by far the most notable elected official to publicly endorse Trump at the time. The two shared similar rhetoric and positions on immigration.
Adviser Stephen Miller, another immigration hardliner, would also migrate from Sessions’ Senate office to the White House.
This is the area where Sessions had the most impact, policy-wise, according to most observers.
“In terms of immigration, I do think there was an impact,” said Fording. “There was some role he had in the increase in deportations from within the border.”
And it is this area where Sessions appears the most divided.
Sessions, a staunch evangelical Christian, cited the Bible verse Romans 13:1 to defend the Trump administration’s migrant family separation policy, which suggests good Christians never question or doubt their government.
The comment sparked outrage, and prompted his own United Methodist Church to formally bring charges of racism, immorality and heresy against him. The charges were ultimately dropped.
Carlos Aleman, deputy director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, said Sessions exploited the issue of immigration to stoke fear and divisions. As a politician, he demonized immigrants to score political points.
“We think that clearly what happened in immigration policy was an increase in rhetoric that emphasizes fear to increase partisanship,” Aleman said. “Sessions has no interest in making this country safer for all Americans.”
But U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, praised Sessions’ role in tightening the border.
“As an elected official, Jeff Sessions never wavered in his fierce defense of the Rule of Law and America’s sovereign right to defend and secure its own borders,” said Brooks. “Jeff Sessions has made Alabama proud. I wish him the best as he embarks on his next journey.”
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