Active Users:773 Time:13/12/2025 02:04:14 PM
Let's be serious, plenty of supposed constitutional rights nowadays were not intended that way. Legolas Send a noteboard - 30/06/2010 11:31:01 AM
your example just might be valid if one of the original thirteen amendments to the Constitution guaranteed the right to abortion. Since none does, then your point is nothing more than irrelevant hyperbole.

Abortion is a particularly bad instance of that, that's for sure. But the right to bear arms as it is interpreted nowadays isn't in the Constitution as such either, it's also an extrapolation of the actual Second Amendment in a direction the Founding Fathers didn't intend. The way the federal government used their authority of regulating interstate commerce to take control over a whole host of things that have little to do with that, is yet another unintended stretch of the Constitution.

Point I'm getting at is, you can't have your cake and eat it, too. If you're going to be fetishist about the Constitution and bandy it around as some kind of ultimate unassailable argument, then you should be wary of all subsequent "interpretations" that twist articles or amendments into things the Founding Fathers never intended, and not merely the ones you don't like. Whereas on the other hand, if you think the Constitution really does need to be open for interpretation and evolution, and the Supreme Court should indeed interpret it in ways the Founding Fathers would never even have considered because the country has evolved and law should evolve too, then it makes little sense to accord a higher importance to the original amendments than to later ones, and it will require some rather solid arguments to explain why some extrapolations and interpretations are bad and others are good. More solid than "it's judicial activism!" or "abortion is not in the Constitution!", that is.
Reply to message
SCOTUS - Affirms Gun Rights Nationwide..... - 28/06/2010 04:47:03 PM 502 Views
A good day for liberty. - 28/06/2010 04:55:01 PM 200 Views
Yeah, pretty much - 28/06/2010 05:19:15 PM 208 Views
Great point - whether you agreed with the 2nd amendment or not, its intent is clear..... - 28/06/2010 06:19:08 PM 182 Views
"well regulated militia" *NM* - 28/06/2010 11:56:54 PM 55 Views
Read the dissents, they don't focus on "well regulated militia"..... - 29/06/2010 04:28:06 AM 164 Views
Um, no. - 29/06/2010 06:05:37 AM 177 Views
yes - 29/06/2010 03:18:43 AM 180 Views
Yes. An armed polity is a defended polity. - 29/06/2010 07:13:50 PM 153 Views
Yay for bare arms! (and other parts too ) - 28/06/2010 10:03:39 PM 182 Views
Good, but I am surprised at how many people I've heard today saying stupid things like... - 29/06/2010 03:18:29 AM 190 Views
I really don't think you should be amazed. - 29/06/2010 04:14:20 PM 163 Views
Interesting on many levels. - 29/06/2010 10:27:30 AM 169 Views
Probably the right ruling. - 29/06/2010 08:30:02 PM 170 Views
~sighs~ - 30/06/2010 02:23:21 AM 159 Views
Let's be serious, plenty of supposed constitutional rights nowadays were not intended that way. - 30/06/2010 11:31:01 AM 164 Views
that is a separate discussion - 01/07/2010 05:05:27 AM 159 Views
Re: that is a separate discussion - 01/07/2010 09:31:55 AM 153 Views
My first reading of the article indicated... - 30/06/2010 02:50:33 PM 158 Views
yes, you were wrong - 01/07/2010 04:48:17 AM 154 Views

Reply to Message