In this one, she says the Constitution should be interpreted over time, as times change. This is the "living Constitution" theory, which essentially says that the Constitution means whatever we want it to mean.
Kagan: Constitution Was Meant To Be "Interpreted Over Time" from RCP Video on Vimeo.
Translation: Let's trust our government not to abuse their power.
And last year she argued before SCOTUS that banning books is fine, because government wouldn't ever really try to ban books.
Kagan has expressed a lot of views in the past that we don't want in our Supreme Court, and she is now backpedaling from them as fast as she can. Face it, she isn't the right person for this job.
The structure of a house can be interpreted over time.
ReplyDeleteThe condition of your brakes can be interpreted over time.
The condition of your knee can be interpreted over time.
Your wife's hostility over the peeling paint on the house...can be interpreted over time.
But for some reason...I just can't see the Constitution coming up for some year-by-year interpretation. If you did start to do that...wouldn't it invite public fears and then trigger a Constitutional Convention where try to write six different versions of the bill of rights? Anyone thinking of 1850 and what led to the civil war?
The nature of a law is that it has to mean something that people can understand. If it is subject to changing at any judicial whim, then the law is not stable enough to govern with. I mean, if you can't tell what's going to be legal from one moment to the next, from one JUDGE to the next, then the law is worse than having nothing at all.
ReplyDeleteJust a hunch, but I'm willing to wager a pick-up load of fireworks that the US by far...has more federal laws on the books than any country on the face of the Earth. Page by page...we beat everyone...that's my bet. And if we start this trend of interpreting laws every five years in a different fashion...we will require three or four teams of Supreme Court judges making decisions lightning fast to keep America "free".
ReplyDeleteJust a humble opinion....you know.