page_title: Jeff Sessions
section_title: Alabama attorney general (1995–1997)
hierarchical_section_title: Jeff Sessions / Alabama attorney general (1995–1997)
caption_attribution_description: English: FEMA Director James Lee Witt speaks during the press conference at Elba airport. Behind him are Senator Jeff Sessions (left) and Senator Richard Shelby (right).
context_page_description: Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 84th United States attorney general from 2017 to 2018. A Republican, Sessions previously served as United States senator from Alabama from 1997 to 2017 before resigning that position to serve in the administration of President Donald Trump.
  From 1981 to 1993, Sessions served as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Sessions to a judgeship on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama. After allegations of racism were made against him in testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which Sessions denied, the committee voted against advancing his nomination to the Senate floor; the nomination was later withdrawn. Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in 1994. In 1996, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, and was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014. During his Senate tenure, Sessions was considered one of the most conservative Senators.
context_section_description: Sessions was elected Attorney General of Alabama in November 1994, unseating incumbent Democrat Jimmy Evans with 57% of the vote. The harsh criticism he had received from Senator Edward Kennedy, who called him a "throw-back to a shameful era" and a "disgrace", was considered to have won him the support of Alabama conservatives.
  As Attorney General, Sessions defended the state in a litigation that challenged the funding system for Alabama's public schools. The litigation resulted in the creation of a new funding system after "Judge Eugene W. Reese found the state's education funding unconstitutional and ordered lawmakers to come up with a system to remedy inequities between rich and poor schools". In 1996, the Gay Lesbian Bisexual Alliance sued the state of Alabama after the Alabama Legislature attempted to deny funding to student organizations that advocated on behalf of homosexuality at public universities. As Attorney General of Alabama, Sessions defended the state, arguing that funding should not be provided to student groups that advocated the violation of sodomy and sexual misconduct laws. A U.S. District court ultimately ruled the law unconstitutional.
caption: Senators Sessions and Richard Shelby with FEMA Director James Lee Witt, 1998
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