Today's Wall Street Journal has an excerpt from a lecture given by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to the Manhattan Institute, How to Read the Constitution.
Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution -- try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores. To be sure, even the most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed, as all methodologies and human institutions are; but at least originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and, I might add, impartial.
Very true, and starkly different from the living breathing document open to change by interpretation and current context idea held by a certain pair of democrats seeking office.
Posted by: JR | October 20, 2008 at 01:30 PM
Justice Thomas sums it up about as clearly as anyone.
Posted by: Ol' BC | October 20, 2008 at 08:59 PM
Justice Thomas sums it up quite clearly.
Posted by: Ol' BC | October 20, 2008 at 09:04 PM