Posted on 09/16/2010 9:38:35 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Alive or dead? Today, the 213th anniversary of the United States Constitution, that question looms large. This is especially so as the document is wielded like a sword, cleaving libertarian from progressive philosophies. Understanding the nature of the Constitution — neither underestimating its genius nor overstating its authority as inerrant — is critical.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once said, “The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living, but dead.” That view has been embraced by many in the tea party movement. These opponents of President Barack Obama’s agend, who thrust the federal government into many areas of national life, argue that the president and Congress must return to a restrained, constitutional purity. Many also assign a kind of divine inspiration to the men who drafted the Constitution, almost implying the document was handed down by God on Mount Sinai like the Ten Commandments. That view flies in the face of the disparate spiritual beliefs and political views those imperfect men held. More
(Excerpt) Read more at bangordailynews.com ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTRe5xDLfXw
Justice Antonin Scalia: The US Constitution is ‘Dead’
This is a better link
Like the Folowers of Absolom, the living constitution crowd is likely to find that there is still life left in the authority raised up by God, after all.
The credit card analogy is imperfect. You can quit using the credit card whenever you want. You’re stuck with the SC’s capricious interpretations of the Constitution whether you like it or not.
The article’s argument is nonsensical. Voting rights were changed in the manner explicitly prescribed by the Constitution. That is, they were changed by amendment, a process that is explicit in the Constitution.
The conclusion of the article is, however, roughly correct. As a practical matter, the Constitution is a dead letter. Lots of folks like to pretend that it has meaning, but it’s all just make-believe. As the Speaker of the House said when asked about the Constitution, “Are you serious? Are you serious?”
Look what the Obama administration did with the General Motors take over.
Contractual obligations to investors, lenders and suppliers were ignored and the interests of the labor union were illegally given top priority. They paid no attention to contracts or the law; they made up their own rules to arrive at the conclusion they wanted.
This is how leftists view the US Constitution - just another document to be invoked when it serves their purpose, to be ignored or misrepresented when it does not.
Like Justice David Brewer wrote in 1905 The Constitution is a written instrument as such its’ meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted it means now.” if true when the supreme Court decided the South Carolina case after those years since it was adopted by Congress —then it seems logical it is equally true even today.Unless amended by the process allowed it ought be understood according to the clear
meaning of the terms used when adopted.
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