Scalia criticized those who believe in what he called the "living Constitution."
"That's the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break."
"But you would have to be an idiot to believe that," Scalia said. "The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn't say other things."
Now, I'm as big of fan of Scalia as anyone you're likely to find, at least at WVU Law. He's my jurisprudential hero. But calling one's opponents idiots isn't a particularly effective way to go about winning hearts and minds (see Dean, Howard). Moreover, members of the Federalist Society, who are not infrequently called racist/sexist/fascist/homophobic/etc., should be particularly reticent to lower debates to the level of namecalling. We're better than that, and should act like it.
3 comments:
To say any document is ‘living’ is to revise history. Revising history and revising meaning is ridiculous and idiotic. There is no better way to deal with the premise that documents are alive than to say such as idea is beyond reason and thus “idiotic.” And if the other side wants to call us homophobic or racist simply because we disagree then they are revealing themselves to be the true bigots.
But, with that said, Scalia should restrict his criticisms a bit. Since we are in the age of political correctness, how about saying “such an idea is intelligently challenged” or how about “all foam no beer” or “couldn’t pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel” ?
It’s not the document that is alive stupid; it's the substance behind it. The way your genius hero would have it, only landowner slave holding hypocrites would vote at the same time that they drape themselves on the statement that "all men are created equal."
“Only landowner slave holding hypocrites would vote.” Well, from a purely Originalist reading of the Constitution, “my hero” would see that the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery and the 15th Amendment says that rights shall not be denied based on race. So, “anonymous” please read the Constitution before insulting those of us that follow it.
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