WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump marked the advent of what many predict will be a new era in civil rights and criminal-justice enforcement with his nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., for U.S. attorney general.

A former prosecutor and attorney general for the state of Alabama, Sessions, 69, is serving his fourth term in the U.S. Senate.

There, he has built a legacy as a fierce opponent of abortion and an advocate for religious freedom. Meanwhile, he has criticized the Obama administration’s immigration policies and supported the right of states to enforce their own marriage laws, after the Obama administration in 2011 refused to defend part of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage, for the purposes of federal law, as a union of one man and one woman...

“His priority will be to staff the Department of Justice with people who are committed to limited constitutional government...The next order of business will be to assist with the confirmation of the new Supreme Court justice..."