Scalia Dismisses ‘Living Constitution’
The Supreme Court justice drives home his misguided belief that changes in society's mores shouldn't be reflected in the Constitution. Sure: the Founding Fathers got it all right 200 years ago--including the bit about counting Americans of African descent as three-fifths of a person.:
PONCE, Puerto Rico — People who believe the Constitution would break if it didn’t change with society are “idiots,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says.
In a speech Monday sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society, Scalia defended his long-held belief in sticking to the plain text of the Constitution “as it was originally written and intended.”
Truthdig says: The Supreme Court justice drives home his misguided belief that changes in society’s mores shouldn’t be reflected in the Constitution. Sure: the Founding Fathers got it all right 200 years ago–including the bit about counting Americans of African descent as three-fifths of a person.
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Courts & Law
If you want to deepen your understanding of the differences between “originalism” and “living constitutionalism” as competing theories of constitutional law and interpretation, there’s no better place to begin than with the 2006 debate between the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and the recently retired liberal Justice Stephen Breyer.
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