Civil rights organizations are digging in to oppose the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions as the country’s next attorney general.
Sessions’ hearing is set to begin Tuesday, and the Alabama Republican is expected to be confirmed in the GOP-controlled chamber. The groups want a delay to allow the Senate Judiciary Committee more time to review his record and nomination materials.
Civil rights leaders balked at Sessions’ nomination by President-elect Donald Trump in November, saying he is unqualified and is hostile to laws and policies he would have to enforce in the role, including voting rights and federal consent decrees.
Sessions, an early supporter of Trump, was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 after hearings in which he was accused of making racially charged remarks as a U.S. attorney.