[aruanan]

Fred has a “nuanced” view of certain things....

Yeah, let's have the federal government decide everything; after all, individual states are just vestiges of a pre-national existence.

Some supporting the Human Life Amendment would counter that since it's a constitutional amendment, it comports with constitutional government. However, since the Constitution was designed primarily to delineate a few specific powers appropriate to the federal government, specifically leaving everything else up to the various states and to the citizenry, something is constitutional only to the extent that it fulfills that purpose. Using the amendment process for purposes of social engineering is just totalitarianism in constitutional drag.

[dschapin]

So, I take it that you think that the 13th Amendment which banned Slavery on a national level was somehow unconstitutional social engineering as well. The constitution clearly provides a mechanism for making changes. Many of the Amendments in our current constitution dramatically changed the structure of the government when they were passed - such as the 14th Amendment and the Amendment which allowed for the direct election of Senators. So, your argument that an Amendment to the Constitution can somehow be unconstitutional is patently false.