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To: Steve Van Doorn
A few thoughts.

People who believe in a "living Constitution" simply don't like the Constitution as it is written and don't have the votes to change it. It’s much easier to just feed cases to a few radical liberal judges and they make new law.

Remember Head Judge Norma Holloway Johnson who overrode the computer assignments and gave all the cases involving Clinton corruption to Clinton appointed judges? Easy!

Why did the framers include procedures to change the Constitution if they intended for us to just change what we feel it means?



9 posted on 05/02/2003 11:04:38 PM PDT by RJL
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To: RJL
RJL said: "Why did the framers include procedures to change the Constitution if they intended for us to just change what we feel it means? "

Yes.

A slightly different approach...Ask them to describe what the Constitution would have to be if the Founders had wished it NOT to be a "living" document but rather intended that it be literally interpreted.

Several things come to mind...

It would separate the purpose of the Constitution ("promote the general welfare" in the Preamble) from the powers granted to the government.

It would bind the officers of the government to take an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Consitution.

It would include a Bill of Rights to explicitly constrain the government.

The Bill of Rights would be worded in such a way that it prohibits infringement of rights but makes clear that the rights preceded the Constitution and exist independently of it.

It would explicitly warn that any enumeration of rights does not suggest that there are no others.

It would explicitly state that powers not granted to the government do not belong to it.

It would include "checks and balances" and the requirements for super-majorities to perform some functions which otherwise jeopardize true representation, e.g. the super-majority required to remove a President from office.

As others have stated, it would contain a detailed mechanism for amending the Constitution.

Recent scholarship addressing the Second Amendment establishes pretty clearly that individuals have a right to keep and bear arms and that such arms include those possessed by the government. There is a pressing need for an amendment prohibiting the possession of nuclear arms. The usefulness of such was clearly establish in August of 1945.

Similar scholarship regarding "strict construction" would probably establish that the Constitution is not a "living" document, but is a rather detailed, explicit enumeration of government powers.

34 posted on 05/03/2003 12:03:19 AM PDT by William Tell
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