Why history is important ... or at least ironic

Here is a quote for The Atlantic Magazine found in today's 'Daily Dish:'

.... the temper of the times made it the special duty of a prosecutor and a court engaged in trying two Italian radicals before a jury of native New Englanders to keep the instruments of justice free from the infection of passion or prejudice. In the case of Sacco and Vanzetti no such restraints were respected. By systematic exploitation of the defendants' alien blood, their imperfect knowledge of English, their unpopular social views, and their opposition to the war, the District Attorney invoked against them a riot of political passion and patriotic sentiment; and the trial judge connived at—one had almost written, cooperated in—the process.

Sound familiar? A recent case? An overheated liberal law professor. No - it is Felix Frankfurter's* take on the Sacco and Vanzetti case back in 1921. We have certainly matured as a civil society since then.


*though he was a law professor at the time.

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