Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Scalia Speaks

Justice Scalia came to Rural yesterday and chose to speak on a topic that surprised me--the role of foreign legal decisions in American law. I was waiting for the traditional speech about blah blah blah originalism blah blah everyone else is wrong blah blah. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by the change of topic and even agreed with him when he said that he wouldn't allow self-righteous Europeans dictate our law to us. There definitely is value to knowing what the rest of the world is doing, but that doesn't mean we have to follow them.

In 1776 the rest of the world was creating monarchies and autocracies, we didn't follow them then and it's turned out pretty good for us so far. I do however, disagree with most of the usual stuff that Justice Scalia says. Therefore I found this quote which I particularly like:

"I can only hope for a day when the courts of justice will decline to dig among the tombs of a dead past for ancient and obsolete precedent . . . and the law will be treated as a philosophy to be applied to the ever changing condition of man, and not as a straight jacket with no leeway for the exercise of common sense and common justice."--Mr. Justice Scott of Colorado

There is of course something to be said in favor of Scalia's interpretative prowess and against the rapidly changing world of the living constitutionalists. However, extremist are rarely right and the better course is typically charted through the middle. I don't have an interpretative agenda to push like Scalia, because I cannot wrap mine into a neat two sentence package like he can. I agree that simplicity is the key and that a dynamic changing Constitution serves no one but those in power. However, I also agree that there are rights embedded in the Constitution which do not appear in bold print. There will always be a B in between A and C. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent from Justice Scalia's approach and follow my own path.

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