Sessions Makes Minor Move Designed To Make Liberals Hate Him, Succeeds

Rescinding fines guidance the kind of thing that happens when Justice is run by a troll.

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

I’m allergic to bee stings, but not as seriously as others. If I get stung, I’m likely to get some swelling and may have some difficulty breathing, but I’m unlikely to go into full anaphylaxis.

I have pretty much the same reaction to the Trump administration. I’m likely to react strongly to their actions, stronger than you, probably. But not as violently as some. At least to any individual sting. Nobody (who is a decent human) is immune to Trump. His power to harm cannot be measured simply by the singular damage of any one thing, you have to account for the total tonnage of his actions.

Most days, the Trump administration is a swarm of bees and America is Nicolas Cage.

But some days, it’s just one or two stupid, annoying stings to the American body politic. It’s irritating as hell, but it’s not going to kill you.

Over the holidays, Jeff Sessions decided to sting poor people, and while the move was annoying and callous, it’s not going to fundamentally change our justice system. From the Washington Post:

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding an Obama-era Justice Department letter that asked local courts across the country to be wary of slapping poor defendants with fines and fees to fill their jurisdictions’ coffers, part of a broad rollback of guidance that Sessions believes overreached.

It’s the latest move in Sessions’s effort to dramatically reshape the Justice Department by undoing many of the reforms imposed by his predecessors and giving the institution a harder edge. Sessions is revoking 25 previous guidance documents dating back decades and covering topics as diverse as ATF procedures and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

In a statement, Sessions said he was ending “the long-standing abuse of issuing rules by simply publishing a letter or posting a web page.”

As their first year in power has made abundantly clear, the only Trump administration motivation is to erase anything the black president did before him. That’s truly all they have by way of “governing philosophy.” And it makes a certain kind of sense because Trump wouldn’t even be here if white people weren’t so pissed off over having to listen to a black man for eight years.

Rescinding these letters is just trolling Obama, and liberals in general. Obama, never one for “drama,” probably doesn’t care very much; Trump is so crass and terrible at his job that it’s impossible not to look at Obama even more favorably, the way your ex looks even hotter in your mind’s eye after you spend a night f**king a goat.

Those of us who cannot easily flee these evil lands are inclined to get very dramatic whenever Trump or his crew do something dastardly. But this move by Sessions is designed to scare us more than actually accomplish anything. I mean, think about what happened here. Obama’s Justice Department said, “Hey, maybe you guys should try not to incarcerate poor people for being poor.” In response, Sessions said, “Naw.” It’s evil, sure, but only in the most mundane way.

It’s not like Sessions issued new guidance here. Remember, he does that too and when he does, it’s far more problematic. Sessions wants prosecutors to charge at the highest level, even if doing so is unjust. He wants to deputize every police officer in the country to be federal immigration police. He wants to help Nazis feel comfortable speaking and make protesters feel afraid. Jeff Sessions is a very bad person who does very bad things when he wants to.

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This… this is just Sessions saying anything and everything the Justice Department did under Obama, it’s not going to do anymore. We don’t need a statement to know that. We GET that Sessions doesn’t like blacks or poor people. This is not new information.

So, don’t break out your EpiPen over this one. Jeff Sessions is a plague upon the administration of justice in this country. This was just a straggler bee Sessions probably just forgot to get around to earlier.

Sessions rescinds Justice Dept. letter asking courts to be wary of stiff fines and fees for poor defendants [Washington Post]


Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.