Christian conservative Tony Perkins,
president of the Family Research Council (FRC), on Friday cheered
President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Alabama Senator Jeff
Sessions to lead the Department of Justice.
Trump announce his pick for attorney
general in a statement.
“It is an honor to nominate U.S. Sen.
Jeff Sessions to serve as Attorney General of the United States,”
Trump said. “Jeff has been a highly respected member of the U.S.
Senate for 20 years. He is a world-class legal mind and considered a
truly great attorney general and U.S. attorney in the state of
Alabama. Jeff is greatly admired by legal scholars and virtually
everyone who knows him.”
Perkins praised the announcement,
saying that Sessions will “usher in a new era at DOJ.”
“After the eight-year scandal-factory
of the Justice Department, the president-elect is making it clear
that it's a new day at DOJ with the nomination of Senator Jeff
Sessions (R-Ala) as attorney general,” Perkins said.
“FRC has worked with Senator Sessions
on a number of issues and could not be happier to watch him usher in
a new era at DOJ – one that cherishes the Constitution and its
protection of our freedom from government oppression. If there's one
thing we know about Senator Sessions, it's that he understands the
importance of all of our God-given rights, respects the law, and will
be a vital part of restoring our nation to greatness,” he added.
Sessions was denied a seat on a federal
judiciary in the mid 80s for allegedly making racist remarks. A
charge which he has denied.
He has consistently scored zero on the
Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Congressional Scorecard, a measure of a
lawmaker's support for LGBT rights. During one session of Congress,
Sessions, who was first elected to Congress in 1996, scored a 15 out
of 100.
If confirmed by the Senate, Sessions
would take over ongoing DOJ actions involving LGBT rights, including
a lawsuit against North Carolina's House Bill 2, the only state law
in the nation that prohibits transgender people from using the
bathroom of their choice.
Perkins helped write this year's
Republican Party Platform, which condemns the Supreme Court's 2015
finding that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to
marry, calls for passage of the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) –
a controversial bill before Congress that seeks to undermine the high
court's ruling by protecting opponents of marriage equality –
supports controversial therapies that attempt to alter the sexuality
of LGBT individuals and opposes allowing transgender people from
using the bathroom that matches the gender they identify with.