Posted on 02/27/2006 12:16:31 PM PST by JZelle
He's ba-a-a-ck. Not that he ever really goes away. After all, he has life tenure. This time the Hon. Antonin Scalia was calling those of us who think of the Constitution of the United States as a living document "idiots." No, this wasn't Ann Coulter doing her stand-up routine, but rather an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Welcome to civil discourse, 21st century-style. A decent respect for those who hold to a different philosophy of law, or of anything else, now seems to have gone the way of powdered wigs, dress swords and chivalry in general. This time Justice Scalia was caught talking out of school, or rather his courtroom, at a meeting of the Federalist Society down in Puerto Rico -- although his formal opinions are scarcely more temperate. His subject on this occasion: The idea of a living Constitution and why it's wrong, wrong, wrong. Mr. Justice Scalia summed up the idea before dismissing it as idiotic. "That's the argument of flexibility," he explained, "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."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
God help me, but I detest, despise and hate this leftist filth.
Of course the Constitution can evolve as times and society change. That's exactly what the Amendment process is for.
Greenberg obviously is an idiot!
Waaaahhh! He called us a name!
I would imagine being called an idiot is a relatively common event in the world of Paul Greenberg.
Living things radically transform even when the only variable is time. The Constitution changes when you follow the proscribed and rigorous procedures designed to alter the document. It doesn't age or mature or learn or grow on its own.
People who say that the Constitution is a Living Document ARE idiots.
What the democRATS mean is "lets meld it into something that we can use to get our socialist agenda passed"
Exactly!
The Constitution of the United States is a masterwork of the plastic art of jurisprudence, subject to different interpretations at different times.
According to Greenberg, they might just as well have written the document on a chalkboard.
What's that old saying?
It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear to be an idiot, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
I wonder if we inform Mr. Greenberg that his home mortgage is a living document which can be increased to reflect current realities in the mortgage market would he think us an idiot. What is it with liberals that they cannot understand contract law?
I disagree, it has been explained away very well. To the point where it is only relevant today.
"Of course the Constitution can evolve as times and society change. That's exactly what the Amendment process is for."
But, that would take too much time and a majority of American citizens to support their socialist changes.
Paul Greenberg is a good guy--in fact I think he's the one who first tagged Bill Clinton with the "Slick Willie" nickname. He was writing columns denouncing Clinton back when most people had barely heard of Clinton. But nobody's right all the time.
So the Constitution should live and breath with the times?
Okay, I think Journalists have WAY TOO MUCH freedom when it comes to printing stupid articles like this one. I say we ban the publications of stuff like this.
Freedom of the Press is an ancient idea 200 years dead anyway....
You need to compare the situation today with that in Europe. Federal guns laws bearely touch on the right. In Europe it is rare to find guns in the hands of private persons. Hunting in Germany, for instance, is much more tightly controlled than here in the states. If it much more difficult to hunt here than it used to be, it is because the scarcity of places to hunt has made it a sport for the well-to-do. Most restrictions are state imposed, and it is harder to argue that states have no right to regulate the use of guns.
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