Charlottesville poses new civil rights test for Sessions

WASHINGTON » Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, a son of the segregated South who was named after leaders of the Confederacy, faces a tough new test of his commitment to protecting civil rights as he oversees the Justice Department’s investigation of the deadly violence at a rally of white nationalists in Virginia.

Sessions’ political career has been dogged by questions about race, including during his confirmation hearings this year. In his six months as attorney general, he has worked quickly to change how the department enforces civil rights law, particularly in the areas of police reform and voting rights.

Yet Sessions was also quick to forcefully condemn the car attack at the neo-Nazi rally in support of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville. His response stood in contrast to that of President Donald Trump, who drew equivalence between the white nationalists and those protesting their beliefs. Sessions denounced racism and bigotry and called the driver’s actions an “evil” act of domestic terrorism worthy of a federal civil rights investigation.

Observers say the real test will be in what Sessions does next, given the legal limitations he faces.

Federal hate crimes law may not cover the killing even if it was motivated by hate. Federal criminal law has no specific, catchall charge for acts of domestic terrorism. Sessions may decide that the murder charges already leveled against James Alex Fields Jr. in state court are sufficient for justice.

“It’s my hope that with the degree of national and international scrutiny, that this department will do the right thing,” said Kristen Clarke, a former hate crimes prosecutor and president of the liberal Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “This is a case that the world is watching.”

For Sessions, a genial 70-year-old with an Alabama drawl and an uncompromising conservative ideology, leading the Justice Department is the capstone of a decadeslong political career. He has faced questions about his treatment of minorities along the way.

As a federal prosecutor in the 1980s, Sessions charged black community activists, who were swiftly acquitted, in a voter fraud case that, along with allegations of racially charged comments, cost him a federal judgeship. As a Republican senator more than 20 years later, he opposed expanding the federal hate crimes statute to protect people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Clarke said Sessions’ comments in the days after the Charlottesville attack made her cautiously optimistic, but his history has her concerned.

Sessions promised to “advance the investigation toward the most serious charges that can be brought, because this is an unequivocally unacceptable and evil attack that cannot be accepted in America.”

But he also acknowledged that deciding whether to bring federal charges won’t be quick or easy.