Potential Attorney General Eric Holder will likely have a tough time during his confirmation hearing today, but if and when he gets the green light, he can join his sister-in-law in the Justice Department’s civil-rights history books.

Today’s hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee could be the most contentious so far for Obama’s picks. By no means will it be the same smooth sailing Hillary Clinton experienced this week. Holder, Barack Obama’s pick to head up the Justice Department, has drawn fire from Republicans for his role in the 2001 Clinton administration pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich and the 1999 clemency grants to 16 Puerto Ricans from two militant groups.

While it’s expected the GOP would take aim, some Democrats have their own concerns. Civil- and human-rights advocates worry that Holder – given his private-practice experience representing some of the world’s richest corporations accused of fraud, discrimination and funding terrorism – may be a little too lenient on corporate crooks. Senators will be especially interested to find out if Holder is the right person to help restore trust in the Justice Department, which took several less-than-wholesome hits during the Bush administration.

If confirmed, Holder will be the nation’s first black attorney general, but he wouldn’t be the first in his family to blaze trails in the department. The Washington Post reports that Holder’s late sister-in-law, Vivian Malone Jones, helped integrate the University of Alabama in 1963, and later took a post in the D.O.J.’s civil-rights division. Many women’s groups are among those who are holding out hope that Holder can do much to progress civil rights if confirmed to the post.

Civil rights are "not an abstract concept," Sharon Malone, Jones’s sister and Holder’s wife, told the Post. "It’s something our family has lived through." Now, let’s hope Holder can live through today’s grilling!