Jeff Sessions confirmed as Attorney General News
Jeff Sessions confirmed as Attorney General

[JURIST] US Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) [official website] was confirmed [results] as Attorney General by a 52 to 47 vote on Wednesday, bringing to a close a contentious confirmation process. The committee hearing on his nomination included testimony on Sessions’ controversial history regarding race, but resulted ultimately in his being advanced [JURIST reports] by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sessions vowed after his confirmation to fulfill the duties of the office to the best of his abilities.

Sessions was nominated by President Donald Trump [JURIST report] last November, and his progression through the Senate Confirmation process has proven politically turbulent. This has been exacerbated with the removal of acting Attorney General Sally Yates upon her refusal to enforce [JURIST report] the recent executive order and immigration ban. The Republican senator and former US attorney had been the first senate member to support Trump [AP report] during his presidential campaign, and he later worked with Trump to construct immigration, trade and counterterrorism policies.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.