(CNN) — In 1986, Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., wrote a letter to Sen. Strom Thurmond criticizing Jeff Sessions, who was then a nominee to be a federal judge.
On Tuesday night, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren attempted to read part of the letter on the Senate floor. Republicans cried foul — charging that Warren violated Senate rules against impugning another senator. A party-line vote upheld that decision, turning what could have been an ordinary late-night partisan floor speech for C-SPAN devotees into a national story.
Below is a transcript of the letter, as read by Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Facebook outside the Senate floor.
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
