Why do the conservatives keep running back to the "Originalist" refrain .. Why do not have to right

[TheCoxwain]

to change the constitution as we feel fit ...

As brilliant our founding fathers were - they were human ( and demonstrably so !!!) and our understanding of our world has grown exponentially since..


and I resent being bound by the thoughts and actions of some dudes way back in the 18th century .... HELLO !!!

[baldguy]

1. They're only strict Constitutional Constructionists when it suits them.

Bush v. Gore being prima facie evidence.

[TheCoxwain]

2. I think that is the key .. They have no "Principled Positions" ...They are for what suits them best.

[Bucky]

3. It's a sorta phony argument. If you read about how the Founding generation politicked...

... you quickly see that the Supreme Court has always been political. Half of George Washington's appointees were party hacks (but the other half were quite brilliant). The Framers didn't expect the Supremes to decide many issues other than property disputes among the 15 states (they were already expecting Kentucky & Vermont to join the union at the time of the Convention).

Anyway, I think it'd be tons better to be "bound by the thoughts and actions" of those 18th Century dudes than it is to be bound by Scalia and Roberts's viewpoints of today.

[fed_up_mother]

5. A resounding "Yes!" on your last statement

[fed_up_mother]

4. I'm rather an originalist

but my ideal of "originalist" isn't there idea! LOL

We can change the constitution. We can amend it. We should change it. We should amend it., and we can vote in new laws that are the will of the people. However, when judges make laws against our will (and there's been some real doozies in the Supreme Court in favor of big business), we're stuck. Remember, the Supreme Court makes rulings on a very wide variety of cases, and we're getting screwed quite a bit.

[amborin]

6. b/c they are members of the Federalist Society, been discussed for years

it's a well established movement among conservatives

its aim is to repeal various constitutional amendments, such as:

minimum wage laws

osha

etc...........

[xchrom]

7. they have to have a phrase preceding 'activist judges'. nt

[damntexdem]

8. They enjoy rewriting history to suit them -- and then saying that we must be guided by it.

And the originalists wrote a Constitution that could be amended; and included a judiciary that very-early-on claimed the right to rule on it. The thoughts and actions of some of those 18th-Century dudes were more attuned to our present realities than are the claims of the GOPers.