At its 1933 annual meeting in Grand Rapids, MI, for example, the
ABA's executive committee considered changing the ABA constitution to
allow ``discussion and expressions of opinion on questions of public
interest.'' After arguments that this would revolutionize the scope and
purpose of the ABA, no one--not one person--supported the amendment, to
the best of my knowledge. In February 1965, ABA President Lewis Powell, who later served on the
Supreme Court, wrote that ``the prevailing view is that the Association
must follow a policy of noninvolvement in political and emotionally
controversial issues.'' If that view actually prevailed in 1965, it did
not last. The ABA House of Delegates soon crossed the political Rubicon and
began taking positions on a host of issues through Federal arts
funding, affirmative action, the death penalty, welfare policy,
immigration; you name it, and the ABA has endorsed the liberal
position, oftentimes the most liberal position. The ABA not only opines
on such issues through resolutions but also lobbies legislatures and
files briefs in court cases. The ABA has done exactly what it chose not to do back in 1933 and
revolutionized the scope and purpose of the organization.
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immigration