Former Alabama Senator Doug Jones missed his law school classes one day in 1977 to watch the trial of Robert Chambliss, a Ku Klux Klan member and one of the perpetrators behind the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham that killed four young African American girls.

Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones, the current Jerome Lyle Rappaport distinguished visiting professor at Boston College Law School, will act as a “sherpa” for President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nominee, guiding them through the confirmation process in the Senate.