Our Anglo-American Heritage Can’t Be Wished Away by the Left

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American Greatness

Our Anglo-American Heritage Can’t Be Wished Away by the Left

By Nicholas L. Waddy| February 17, 2018

As a history professor and long-time instructor in “Western Civilization” classes, I was dumbfounded by recent leftist attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions, at a meeting of U.S. sheriffs, innocuously observed that these highly respected police officials are part of our country’s democratic and “Anglo-American” legal and law enforcement heritage. The term “Anglo-American” stuck in Left’s collective craw, symbolizing (as they see it) the fact that U.S. laws and law enforcement are made of, by, and for (you guessed it) white people. This interpretation of Sessions’ remarks is not only grossly unfair—it also ignores the very real “Anglo-American” basis for our laws, constitution, and democracy.

 Americans should understand that our legal system is founded on the British “common law” tradition, which distinguishes the legal environment in Britain and its former colonies, including the United States, from that in almost every other part of the world. “Anglo-American” common law bases ideas of justice on precedents established in previous judicial rulings. Because of this, many of the assumptions of the American legal system actually predate America itself and hearken back to ideas of justice in medieval and early modern England.