Rounds: Jeff Sessions Will Make Certain That Justice is Done for all Americans
“I support Senator Sessions as Attorney General of the United States not only because his experience makes him qualified to serve, but more importantly because his character makes him qualified to serve.”
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor in support of Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to be Attorney General.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG08WvAZ6Xg&feature=youtu.be
Full remarks as prepared for delivery:
“ I rise today regarding the upcoming confirmation vote on Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama to be Attorney General of the United States.
For the past two years, I have had the great pleasure of working with Senator Sessions in this body.
We serve together on both the Senate Armed Services and Environment and Public Works Committees.
Within those committees as well as other issues that have come before the Senate during that time period, I have found Senator Sessions to be extremely forthright, hardworking and honest.
He has served Alabamans and all Americans well during his 20 years in the Senate.
In addition to serving on the Armed Services and EPW Committees, he also serves on the Senate Judiciary and Budget Committees, all of which address vital aspects of our federal system.
Senator Sessions also had a distinguished career before he was elected Senator from Alabama.
After graduating from the University of Alabama with a law degree, Senator Sessions practiced law in Russellville and Mobile, Alabama.
In 1975, he took the oath to defend the constitution of the United States as an Assistant United States Attorney – the first step in a long and honorable career as a prosecutor.
In 1981, Senator Sessions was nominated by President Reagan – and confirmed by the United States Senate – as United States Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama.
He served honorably in that role for 12 years.
Senator Sessions was then elected Alabama Attorney General and served in that role until his election to the United States Senate.
Mr/Madam President – it is clear to me that Senator Sessions is exceptionally – and perhaps uniquely – qualified to serve as Attorney General of the United States.
He has served as a line prosecutor and – as U.S. Attorney and Alabama Attorney General – as the chief federal and state law enforcement authority.
He has personally handled or managed a wide variety of cases – criminal and civil; trial and appellate.
Senator Sessions also has extensive experience in the federal system and – as a former state attorney general – deep respect for state and local law enforcement and the role of states in our federal system.
But there is an attribute even more important than experience: Integrity.
Senator Sessions has, over the course of his career, demonstrated a deep respect for the Constitution and the rule of law.
And ultimately, that is what is most important in an Attorney General of the United States.
In 1935 the United States Supreme Court wrote this about the role of a United States Attorney – and I think it applies similarly to the Attorney General:
A federal prosecutor “is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all. And whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice be done.”
The Supreme Court continued, “[a]s such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer.”
I support Senator Sessions as Attorney General of the United States not only because his experience makes him qualified to serve, but more importantly because his character makes him qualified to serve.
Senator Sessions will, in the words of the Supreme Court, be a “servant of the law” and will make certain that justice is done for all Americans.”
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