I'm looking for help on the concept of a living constitution.

[mmonk]

All I seem to find by Googling it is rightwing interpretations and their so called originalism. Anybody know where I can go on the internet these days to find quotes for a living document interpretation?

[mmonk]

1. I'm curious, why are people voting this down?

I'm looking for help.

[RoyGBiv]

2. Louis Brandeis ....

Thomas Jefferson, Earl Warren, Oliver Holmes. Add those names to your search.

They probably won't use the phrase in any specific quote, but a lot of their thought is responsible for the modern concept.

[mmonk]

3. Thanks

[elleng]

4. Mr. Justice Breyer and his book.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4929668

[Gravel Democrat]

5. The father of the original thing might have something you could use

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy-JM
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/james_madison.html

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. JM
http://www.constitution.org/jm/jm_quotes.htm

Relevant to your post:

With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. * Letter to James Robertson (1831-04-20)
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Madison

If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.
James Madison, letter to Edmund Pendleton, January 21, 1792
http://www.marksquotes.com/Founding-Fathers/Madison/index2.htm

Many people have no idea who James Madison was. Why do you think that is?

[mmonk]

6. I always thought of him as James Madison.

So tell me.

[mmonk]

7. I'm also curious as to your interpretation of my post.

Especially since I did not mention welfare, general welfare, money, Congress, etc.