How Jeff Sessions would change the Justice Department

On Tuesday morning attorney general-designate Jeff Sessions will become the first Trump nominee to undergo a Senate confirmation hearing. It could be rough.

Democrats have spent weeks noting that Sessions — their colleague in the Senate for the last 20 years — was denied a federal judgeship in 1986 over charges he was "racially insensitive." The outside groups and journalists that support Democrats have been less tactful; just Google "Sessions" and "racist."

But the key questions in confirming Sessions are not about what happened, or didn't happen, in the 1980s. They are about what Sessions would do as attorney general. Crime, policing, imprisonment, illegal immigration — those and many others are big issues on which the Justice Department has taken sometimes controversial stands under Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. It's safe to say an Attorney General Sessions would change course. But how?

Sessions has been careful to say very little in the last few weeks. As a senator and member of the Judiciary Committee, he has been through a lot of confirmation battles, some of them quite ugly. No reason to make any untoward statements or step on any toes before the hearing begins.

But a look at Sessions's record, and talks with people who know him, have worked with him, and are familiar with his approach to issues, can give us a picture of Sessions's priorities if he is confirmed.