Friday, January 1, 2016

Should the constitution by interpreted in terms of the original mention of the Founders rather than the morality of society today?

Your question is really a tough one.


I tend to lean toward a fairly "strict constructionist" view; that is, that the Constitution should be interpreted according to our best attempts to understand what the meaning of the written words is. 


I feel that if we insert too much of present-day "morality" into the interpretation of the Constitution, we will soon not have much of a Constitution left at all.  That doesn't mean that present-day standards are not important; it just means that they should not become constitutional absolutes.


For example, let's take the question of whether a woman has a right to abortion.  I really fail to see where the Constitution does or does not grant this right.  So, I feel that each state or municipality should have the right either to outlaw abortion, or to legalize it, or to regulate it.  And furthermore, since this is not (in my opinion) a constitutional issue, the states should be able to change their minds about this question as often as they like--just as they can change their minds about tax levels, traffic fines, legal drinking age, divorce law, and thousands of other matters of policy. 

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