Bostonian lawyer and Patriot James Otis (1725–1783) was one of the first champions againstcolonial taxation without representation in British Parliament. His revolutionary cause for colonial representation in Parliament began when he argued in colonial courts against the writs of assistance and grew after the Sugar Act was passed in 1764. Otis’s pamphlet The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, published in July 1764, was perhaps the author’s most spirited defense of the American colonies against oppressive rule by Great Britain. Otis began his career as a loyal British subject, but in the 1760s he grew troubled by what he regarded as the unconstitutional practices of British authorities. One of these practices was called the writs of assistance, which gave the authorities the right to enter a home or business and search for unspecified contraband and smuggled goods. In 1761 he resigned in protest from his position as an attorney in the vice admiralty court and turned his efforts to the defense of merchants against the renewal of writs of assistance. Otis lost the case, but he brought the matter to public attention, became something of an instant celebrity, and just a month later was elected to the Massachusetts General Court (that is, the legislature), where he became an outspoken opponent of onerous British rule.