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Liberals Accuse Sessions of Racism for Referring to 'Anglo-American Heritage' of U.S. Law

Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Attorney General Jeff Sessions / Getty images
February 12, 2018

Liberals on social media accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of explicit or implicit racism on Monday after he noted the "Anglo-American heritage" of the office of the sheriff.

"I want to thank every sheriff in America. Since our founding, the independently elected sheriff has been the people's protector, who keeps law enforcement close to and accountable to people through the elected process," Sessions said in a speech before the National Sheriffs Association. "The office of sheriff is a critical part of the Anglo-American heritage of law enforcement."

That remark was met with intense criticism on social media from predominantly liberal users, including Democratic Sens. Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.), who accused Sessions of making a racist comment.

Media outlets such as CNN, the Daily Beast, and the Hill also covered Sessions' remark.

Rather than making a racial statement, however, Sessions was more likely referring to the fact that the position of "sheriff" is nearly unique to areas that have historic ties to England. Collins English Dictionary lists the United States as one of the few countries that has sheriffs, along with England, Wales, Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland.

"Anglo-American" also is a term generally used to refer to English common law, which forms the basis of much of the U.S. legal system. The Encyclopedia Britannica entry for "Common law, also called Anglo-American law" was penned by professors from Harvard and the University of London.

A Sessions spokesman confirmed to the Washington Free Beacon that was the intended meaning.

"As most law students learn in the first week of their first year, Anglo-American law—also known as the common law—is a shared legal heritage between England and America," the spokesman said in a statement.

"The sheriff is unique to that shared legal heritage," the statement continued. "Before reporters sloppily imply nefarious meaning behind the term, we would suggest that they read any number of the Supreme Court opinions that use the term. Or they could simply put 'Anglo-American law' into Google."

A search of Supreme Court archives brings up 259 decisions that reference the "Anglo-American" legal tradition in some fashion.