Showing posts with label Jeff Sessions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Sessions. Show all posts

Monday, July 30, 2018

AG Sessions Announces New Religious Liberty Task Force In Extensive Remarks on Topic

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered remarks (full text) at today's Department of Justice Religious Liberty Summit.  He said in part:
I want to thank all of you for your courage and insight to speak out for religious liberty.
Let us be frank.
A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom. There can be no doubt. This is no little matter. It must be confronted and defeated.
This election, and much that has flowed from it, gives us a rare opportunity to arrest these trends.  Such a reversal will not just be done with electoral victories, but by intellectual victories. 
We have gotten to the point where courts have held that morality cannot be a basis for law; where ministers are fearful to affirm, as they understand it, holy writ from the pulpit; and where one group can actively target religious groups by labeling them a “hate group” on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs.
This President and this Department of Justice are determined to protect and even advance this magnificent heritage....
[I]n recent years, the cultural climate in this country—and in the West more generally—has become less hospitable to people of faith. Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack.
And it’s easy to see why.  We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives. 
We’ve seen U.S. Senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office.  We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.
Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds are concerned about what this changing cultural climate means for the future of religious liberty in this country.
President Trump heard this concern.
I believe this unease is one reason that he was elected.  In substance, he said he respected people of faith and he promised to protect them in the free exercise of their faith.  He declared we would say “Merry Christmas” again....
Today I am announcing our next step: the Religious Liberty Task Force, to be co-chaired by the Associate Attorney General and the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy—Jesse [Panuccio] and Beth [Williams].
The Task Force will help the Department fully implement our religious liberty guidance by ensuring that all Justice Department components are upholding that guidance in the cases they bring and defend, the arguments they make in court, the policies and regulations they adopt, and how we conduct our operations.  That includes making sure that our employees know their duties to accommodate people of faith.
As the people in this room know, you have to practice what you preach. We are also going to remain in contact with religious groups across America to ensure that their rights are being protected.  We have been holding listening sessions and we will continue to host them in the coming weeks.
This administration is animated by that same American view that has led us for 242 years: that every American has a right to believe, worship, and exercise their faith in the public square.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Fellow Church Members File Ecclesiastical Complaint Against Attorney General Sessions

CNN reports that on Monday, 640 members of the United Methodist Church filed a formal ecclesiastical complaint (full text) against fellow church member, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  The complaint was addressed to pastors of the churches in Mobile, Alabama and Clarendon, Virginia that Sessions attends.  The complaint, brought pursuant to Paragraph 2702.3 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, charges Sessions with child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of doctrine of the United Methodist Church.  Calling for entering into a "just resolution process" with Sessions, the complaint says:
Mr. Sessions-- as a long-term United Methodist in a tremendously powerful, public position-- is particularly accountable to us, his church.  He is ours, and we are his.  As his denomination, we have an ethical obligation to speak boldly when one of our members is engaged in causing significant harm in matter contrary to the Discipline on the global stage....  [W]e believethat the severity of his actions and the harm he is causing to immigrants, migrants, refugees, and asylees calls for his church to step into a process to directly engage with him as a part of our community.

Friday, June 15, 2018

Sessions Responds To Church Leaders' Criticism of Immigration Policy

As reported by NBC News, Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday in a speech to law enforcement officers in Ft. Wayne, Indiana (full text) responded to criticism from Christian evangelical groups of the Administration's policy of separating parents from children in arresting those crossing the border illegally.  Sessions said in part:
Let me take an aside to discuss concerns raised by our church friends about separating families. Many of the criticisms raised in recent days are not fair or logical and some are contrary to law.
First- illegal entry into the United States is a crime—as it should be. Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution. I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order....
Please note, Church friends, that if the adults go to one of our many ports of entry to claim asylum, they are not prosecuted and the family stays intact pending the legal process.
The problem is that it became well known that adults with children were not being prosecuted for unlawful entry and the numbers surged from 15,000 in 2013 to 75,000 four years later....
My request to these religious leaders who have criticized the carrying out of our laws to also speak up strongly to urge anyone who would come here to apply lawfully, to wait their turn, and not violate the law.

Saturday, July 15, 2017

Attorney General Sessions Speaks At Hate Crimes Summit

On June 29, Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered remarks (full text) at the Civil Rights Division's Hate Crimes Summit.  Sessions focused on recent hate crime arrests and convictions, saying in part:
The Department has prosecuted a number of high-profile hate crimes cases this year as we seek to bring criminals to justice.
In March ... a suspect was found and arrested in Israel for allegedly making threatening phone calls to Jewish community centers, inflicting terror across the nation.  In April, we brought federal charges against him, and our investigation into these acts as possible hate crimes continues....
Just last week, we sought and a federal grand jury returned an indictment against a man in Texas for burglary and arson of the Victoria Islamic Center.   He now faces up to 40 years in federal prison.   Earlier this month, a man in Tennessee was sentenced to over 19 years in prison for trying to recruit people to help him burn down a mosque in a small town in New York.   Also this month, the Department indicted a man from Kansas for shooting three men at a bar because he thought they were of Persian origin.... 
We have and will continue to enforce hate crime laws aggressively and appropriately where transgendered individuals are victims.  Last month, Joshua Brandon Vallum was sentenced to 49 years in prison for assaulting and murdering Mercedes Williamson.   This is the first case prosecuted under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act involving the murder of a transgender person.
I personally met with the Department’s senior leadership and the Civil Rights Division to discuss a spate of murders around the country of transgender individuals.   I have directed the Civil Rights Division to work with the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify ways the Department can support the state and local law enforcement authorities investigating these incidents and to determine whether federal action would be appropriate.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Sessions Hearings Include Questions On Religious Liberty

The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday held hearings on the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General of the United States.  Don Byrd at Blog From the Capital has conveniently put together video excerpts from the lengthy hearing which deal with issues of religious liberty, including Donald Trump's past proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.