U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia emphatically rebutted the notion that the Constitution is a living document in a lecture at Southern Methodist University last week.
“It’s not a living document,” Scalia said, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News. “It’s dead, dead, dead.”
Scalia also told the crowd that sometimes the decisions he arrives at are not in concert with his political convictions.
“The judge who always likes the results he reaches is a bad judge,” he said.
Scalia shared the stage with SMU law Professor Brian Garner. The two recently published their second book together, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Text.
{The Hill/Matzav.com Newscenter}
he is a disgrace
Nebach. Just what we need, yet another rogue decision maker.
As the US will be, if it listens to Justice Scalia. He should remember that the Founders wrote the Constitution with a built-in way to change it, since they knew that the world isn’t static.
What are you talking about; he is exemplary because he is willing to forgo his own personal opinions to uphold the constitution. He is acting out of the duties of his office and not abusing his power.
Scalia is absolutely right: judges are supposed to apply the existing laws, not to take over Congress’s job by legislating from the bench.
Anyone who has unbiased understanding of constitutional law know this is the real deal. its the liberal desires that cause judges to form law to personal views instead of framers intent .
Scalia is a moonshine monkey.
#7 – He’s a Supreme Court Justice. He should be respected, regardless of what you think of his opinions. I think he’s way off base, but I wouldn’t call him that kind of name. The Supreme Court is one of the institutions that make our country work, and separate us from the countries like Syria and Somalia. Respect the man’s position, if not his opinions.
I don’t think most people understand Justice’s Scalia’s remark. It is wholly in line with his well known and historic view that the Constitution must be interpreted in accordance with its written text and cannot be interpreted to in a manner that suggests that if the Founders had been alive today, they would have said something else in light of current thinking. Hence, the constitution is not a living document–but rather DEAD.