|
it seems to me that most strict constructionists know full well that the desire to return to the founder's ideologies is problematic:
on interpretive grounds (original intent? huh?)
on historical grounds (see above)
and on political grounds (the contradiction it implies between original intent and a precedent-based legal system, for example).
so the motive cannot really lay in the content of their politics--it is more about developing a way to frame attacks on what they understand as "judicial activism" by undercutting the ability of the legal system to respond to changing mores.
they know--we all know--that jefferson was not a prophet. what he wrote was as tied to the period in which he wrote as marx was, as lenin was, as von hayek was. etc etc etc.
it seems this tack brings us to distant shores. it seems difficult to get back from them.
__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear
it make you sick.
-kamau brathwaite
|