fellow bostonians james otis and samuel adams employed similar reasoning to challenge the writs of assistance and the towns and ask. banner for became a rallying opposition to british rule. te sealusetts' first stae se depicts the militia man with a sword in his right hand on a copy of magna carta in his left. there is no small irony in the fact that magna carta, a thement that cook viewed as right of englishmen, would become a cornerstone in our quest for freedom from british rule. now, from our perspective today, 800 years later, we can see that magna carta originally resulted squabble between a king and selfish barons. eyes fixed on their own interests. but magna carta became a building block in developing the notion of a government bound by the rule of rule, a structure that defined limits on the exercise of power and allow those without power to assert demand justice. describeddick howard as the road from romney being has not been -- from romne been smooth.s not what is important is that the corporate civil justice remain relevant and worth defending. when the aba rededicate his monument