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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Trump's A.G. Nomination Questioned by Missouri Scholars

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Friday, January 6, 2017   

ST. LOUIS - Hundreds of legal scholars from almost every state, including Missouri, are objecting to the president-elect's choice of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., for U.S. attorney general.

More than 1,200 law professors, including Monica Eppinger at Saint Louis University School of Law, signed a letter urging Congress to reject the nomination and saying Sessions would not fairly enforce the law or promote justice and equality. The Senate Judiciary Committee begins confirmation hearings next week.

Eppinger said Sessions has a record of antipathy towards voting rights, including his 1985 prosecution of three civil rights activists for voter fraud in Alabama.

"He was taking the letter of the law and trying to spin it on its head and use it against the very same law," she said.

The letter also mentioned Sessions' continued opposition to policies promoting the rights of women and the LGBTQ community.

A spokesperson for Sessions said the senator has dedicated his career to upholding the rule of law, ensuring public safety and prosecuting government corruption.

Eppinger also took issue with Sessions' stance on prison sentencing.

"If somebody is convicted of a nonviolent drug offense, most Americans do not think that long-term incarceration is the correct response to that," she said, "but he is the opposite. He has called for a more mandatory minimums and longer sentences."

Professors from 176 law schools in 49 states signed the letter, which was sent Tuesday, the same day six people were arrested during an NAACP protest sit-in at Sessions' office in Alabama.

The letter is online at docs.google.com.


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