Little-Acorn
Gold Member
Judges like Gorsuch are referred to as "originalist". This means they favor interpreting the Constitution as closely as they can get to what the people who wrote and ratified it, meant. And they tend to decide what it means, by looking at the text of the document, much more than what subsequent judges have claimed it means.
They have a great advantage, in that the meaning of the Constitution changes much less over time, then under judges who feel it should change with changing times. If people want to change what it means, they can amend it by using the procedures it contains. And if they don't amend it, that means they don't want its meaning to change. Not in sufficient quantities to justify the change.
Changing the Constitution by imagining it means something different from what it says, is called "rule of men" as opposed to "rule of law". This becomes important when people have long-range projects or businesses, and need to run their affairs according to known rules, rather than by rules that might change to something completely different later on.
The originalists are generally hated by the left, since the Constitution is a conservative document designed to prevent people from expanding the government and give it unlimited authority. Originalists won't let the leftists pretend the various passages mean something other than what they actually say.
They prevent the leftists from inserting things that aren't there (imagining it calls out a general right to privacy that abortion can hide behind, exceptions to the 2nd amendment's ban on govt having any say in who can own and carry weapons, strange additions to the Commerce Clause and Welfare Clause that authorize govt to regulate far more then the Framers intended etc.), or ignoring things that ARE in the Constitution (bans on govt influencing people's practice of their own religion etc.).
This prevents leftists from pursuing their main agenda, which is expanding government and giving it more and more control over people's own private lives. Limiting government this way (as the Framers intended), leaves people far more freedom to make their own decisions and live by the results, instead of relying on govt to do it for them.
Hopefully President Trump will appoint such originalists to the Supreme Court and lower courts, to overrule the big-govt leftists (in both parties) and start getting government back to the limited size the Constitution requires.
They have a great advantage, in that the meaning of the Constitution changes much less over time, then under judges who feel it should change with changing times. If people want to change what it means, they can amend it by using the procedures it contains. And if they don't amend it, that means they don't want its meaning to change. Not in sufficient quantities to justify the change.
Changing the Constitution by imagining it means something different from what it says, is called "rule of men" as opposed to "rule of law". This becomes important when people have long-range projects or businesses, and need to run their affairs according to known rules, rather than by rules that might change to something completely different later on.
The originalists are generally hated by the left, since the Constitution is a conservative document designed to prevent people from expanding the government and give it unlimited authority. Originalists won't let the leftists pretend the various passages mean something other than what they actually say.
They prevent the leftists from inserting things that aren't there (imagining it calls out a general right to privacy that abortion can hide behind, exceptions to the 2nd amendment's ban on govt having any say in who can own and carry weapons, strange additions to the Commerce Clause and Welfare Clause that authorize govt to regulate far more then the Framers intended etc.), or ignoring things that ARE in the Constitution (bans on govt influencing people's practice of their own religion etc.).
This prevents leftists from pursuing their main agenda, which is expanding government and giving it more and more control over people's own private lives. Limiting government this way (as the Framers intended), leaves people far more freedom to make their own decisions and live by the results, instead of relying on govt to do it for them.
Hopefully President Trump will appoint such originalists to the Supreme Court and lower courts, to overrule the big-govt leftists (in both parties) and start getting government back to the limited size the Constitution requires.
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