Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia loves to claim he has some monopoly on the meaning of the US Constitution. Because he claims such a monopoly he maintains that we must view the Constitution as a "dead" not a "living" document. The ONLY proper function of judges is to uphold the idea of original intent.
Now there's something to be said about original intent... and I personally believe that lawmakers should include a clear statement of a compelling state interest in ALL laws. If that law goes beyond that intent it should be seen as an abuse of state power. But such statements of intent are not required in law... and this is where Scalia's game begins.
For example he claims there is no constitutional right to privacy therefore he opposed the striking down of anti-sodomy laws. He claims that there is no constitutional right to an abortion... therefore the only way to deal with the issue is though a Constitutional amendment... something he MUST know is just about impossible. He claims his opposition to abortion is NOT because of his own pro-"life" views.
http://www.rnclife.org/faxnotes/2002/apr02/02-04-05.shtmlIt is curious that for someone to CLAIM he is the defender of original intent, Scalia seems so ignorant of the fact that the Bill of Rights was written with the presumption that We The People already possessed rights... and just because SOME rights had been enumerated, did not mean others, not specified, were NOT protected.
The Constitution makes this VERY clear in the 9th amendment "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. A good discussion of this amendment can be found at:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment09/There's always a tendency to claim something bigger than ourselves justifies our beliefs. Marxists use History. Social Darwinists used Evolution. Some claim God or Allah. Some claim The Market. What's Scalia's game? Despite his claims to the contrary, Scalia is very fond of bending the Constitution to suit his own beliefs using the claim of original intent as a fig leaf. This hypocrisy makes Scalia unfit to be on the USSC.