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Risch on blocking reading of Coretta Scott King letter: ‘Rules are rules’

Coretta Scott King is shown in this 2003 photo in front of a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.
Coretta Scott King is shown in this 2003 photo in front of a portrait of Martin Luther King Jr.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch is staunchly defending his role in blocking a letter from Coretta Scott King from being entered into the record in the U.S. Senate during Tuesday evening’s debate over the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general, saying Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren violated Senate rules by bringing up the letter.

“It doesn’t matter who wrote it – the rules are the rules,” Risch said Wednesday. “If you don’t have rules, you have anarchy.”

Risch contended the letter “impugned” Sessions. Written in 1986, when Sessions was U.S. Attorney in Alabama, the letter from King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., objected to Sessions being appointed as a federal judge – a nomination the Senate at that time rejected/Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise. More here.



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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