WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union announced today that its new national legal director, David Cole, will testify at Sen. Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing for attorney general on January 11.
The ACLU is nonpartisan, and as a matter of longstanding policy does not support or oppose nominees for federal office. As a result, the ACLU rarely testifies in confirmation hearings. However, the organization is taking the extraordinary step of testifying in this hearing because Sen. Sessions’ record raises significant, serious questions about his hostility to civil rights and civil liberties. The ACLU believes he must satisfactorily answer questions on these issues before a confirmation vote proceeds.
ACLU’s analysis of Sessions’ civil liberties record prepared for the confirmation process is available here:
https://www.aclu.org/feature/confirmation-sessions
Cole’s remarks will be available before his testimony at:
https://www.aclu.org/feature/david-cole-senator-jeff-sessions-testimony
More information on Cole is available here:
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-taps-constitutional-expert-david-cole-national-legal-director