Current Affairs: February 2006 Archives

Antonin Scalia, the supreme court justice asserted this weekend that the U.S. Constitution was not a living document and should change as society changes.  He is an originalist; believing that the Constitution is not flexible.  In fact, he goes so far as to say that people who believe the Constitution would break if it didn't change along with society are "idiots,"

That’s the argument of flexibility 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. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn’t say other things.

I am surprised he did not take off his shoe and pound the table.  I seem to remember that it is very hard to change the constitution, so I wonder what his comments were about.  Congress and the the American people do not approach changing the Constituion lightly.  There is a process that protects us from idiots. However, I don't know how we are protected from the conservative Supreme Court Justices.

technorati tags: Constitution, Justice, Originalist Scalia