Four-term Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is Donald Trump's pick for U.S. attorney general, CBS News learned Friday morning. Sessions was an early and outspoken supporter of Trump and was among the top candidates rumored to be tapped for the position.
In addition to promoting Trump, Sessions has been "a hard-liner on free trade and immigration, arguing that prospective immigrants don’t have constitutional protections," Bloomberg Politics writes. "He has opposed efforts to overhaul prison sentencing, back off the war on drugs and legalize marijuana." Sessions also voted for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage and was against the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."
As America's top lawyer and law enforcement officer, Sessions would potentially play a large role in vetting Trump's Supreme Court pick.
Decades ago, Sessions lost an appointment to the federal bench after a 1986 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where witnesses accused Sessions of calling some civil rights organizations "un-American" and the NAACP "communist inspired." He later made it to the Senate and holds a top position in the Judiciary Committee.