Birth of a Nation Quotes
Wilson is perhaps the only President in American history who actually presided over a reverse affirmative action. Other post Reconstruction presidents have either increased the degree of affirmative action in Federal positions or ignored affirmative action and did not pursue it. But only Wilson rolled it back.
The Writs of Assistance allowed the English authorities to issue general search warrants without any charges being filed and without any kind of probably cause or review by an independent judge. The practice outraged the colonists and Otis argued in court against its legitimacy. He lost the case, but galvanized the nation. When the Constitution was up for ratification, people remembered and the price of ratification was eliminating this abuse, and others in the Bill of Rights. Ironically, the favorite argument given by the English authorities for the broad search warrants was the same as many police and politicians give today. “If a person has done nothing wrong, what is so terrible about searching his house?” If there is nothing to hide, nothing will be found. That argument of course begs the question and was even being passionately debated in 2006 over the renewal of the Patriot Act.
