[Viva Le Dissention]

Well, as I said in my last post, fortunately for us, the 14th Amendment rolled around, and we've got Gideon, and it's for the better, I think everyone would agree.

Original intent just plain doesn't work, because there are issues and concepts today that simply could not be fathomed in the 18th Century. Proliferation of commerical speech, the Internet, women's rights, civil rights, etc.

Like I said before, original intent is a nice reference and maybe a good starting point, but it's certainly not the Alpha Omega of constitutional interpretation.

[dsc]

"Proliferation of commerical speech, the Internet, women's rights, civil rights, etc."

With the exception of the Internet, all those issues existed well before the 18th century, and the Internet is really just another form of speech, which also predated the constitution.

The mechanism for amendng the constitution is spelled out therein. Unless and until it is amended, it means just what it says, no more and no less.