“just an amalgam of cowardliness on the part of our elected and appointed officials”
Aren’t you forgetting someone? John Q. Public?
The “emanations” and “penumbras” that have been found in the crevices of the law have gone far to form new precedents that can even give the letter of the law the opposite interpretation from its original intent.
Strict interpretation of the law by expressing the original intent has become a lost art.