Do people not understand the constitution is a dead document?

[Stoner710]

There’s a views in the United States that the constitution is a living document. It’s not a living document it’s dead. Antonin Scalia made this point "If you somehow adopt a philosophy that the Constitution itself is not static, but rather, it morphs from age to age to say whatever it ought to say — which is probably whatever the people would want it to say — you've eliminated the whole purpose of a constitution. And that's essentially what the 'living constitution' leaves you with,"

what he’s saying here is you can’t take the 14th amendment and the equal protection clause and say it protects homosexual marriage or abortions or contraception. This doesn’t mean states can’t have contraception or homosexual marriage or abortion but it’s completely out of the federal government’s hands. Remember the states were supposed to have a lot more power than the federal government. The federal government is supposed to be as week as a baby the states are supposed to be strong as an Ox. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t amend the constitution with a super majority. But as far as the idea that the Constitution changes over time to reflect values we have in 2023 that’s idea simply is wrong.

[AimeeKyle]

You are correct, the constitution is static / not changing. The states really do have the power; however, the Feds take in sooooo much more tax dollars than the states that it controls the stated by dolling out funding to the states that remain “in-line” (doing what the feds decree).

Ultimately, the only things that can / should change are the laws that need further clarification…. and/or laws regarding things not covered specifically in the constitution (Note: all laws are subject to the Supreme Courts review to ensure the laws are constitutional - the ultimate reason/importance of the separation of powers)

Just reminding everyone, the Supreme Court doesn’t make the laws, they just review the laws (and lawsuits) to ensure they follow the guidelines set forth in our constitution and subsequent amendments.

So when you talk about abortion or any other controversial topic…. it is all of our legislators (Congress and Senate) that are to blame for the indecision/lack of clarity/turmoil regarding a specific topic…. because they are the ones that create the laws…..

Both sides consistently and systematically utilize hot topics to divide and conquer/control…. It’s much easier to control at odd / divided groups than a collective whole….

[exitseven]

The Constitution was crafted during a different time when the world was different. The technology has advanced and the system of checks and balances that the founding fathers baked into the Constitution no longer work. This is where wea are today. The democrats control the media and big tech. They collude with them to hide information that is harmful to democrats and scream 24/7 over anything that makes a conservative look bad. Eventually they will gut the Constitution and that will be the end of America

[Stoner710]

Yea pretty much. If the argument is the constitution is old, and no longer applies tomorrow in line, then I honestly don’t see why the United States should stay together as a country. The south east is Way way (1,000 years later) way way different than the Pacific Northwest. Like up here even conservatives who love Trump like Weed as well. South east no weed.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO

[AviatorTom]

The US Constitution is "living" in that its basic principles can be applied to today's situations. But it is wrong to take a situation that didn't exist when that part of the Constitution was written and claim that it does. For example, same-sex marriage and abortion are not defined in the Constitution, and those who they are, well, they are wrong.

[Jersey2]

Morons, and I really mean morons, are turning this great country upside down with there absolutely insane ideas. Sadly we will have to hit rock bottom before the country has had enough of them but it will be too late by then to regain the wealth, power and prestige the country had just 20 years ago.

[Jersey2]

Their*

[Anonymous]

I agree with you and Scalia. But the United States was never meant to be superpower with a massive military. Who knew that humans yearned from freedom this much. Who knew that the American dream would be so admired and that we'd be the template for 21st century and beyond. Unfortunate he with the most firepower usually has the last say. And while the states were meant to decide for themselves for the most part. It's not even debatable, federal law trumps state law every time.

[Stoner710]

This is true, we were warned about getting into foreign wars as well. After WW2 the British gave up their empire to fight the Nazis. A lot of people don’t know the Nazis wanted Britain on its side during ww2 and made appeals to the British parliament to join them in their crusade to take over the world. But since they refused year was devastated and we took 5 casualties on the main land of the United States (a Japanese balloon bomb made it to rural Oregon killing four people in a blast and one died later in the hospital). After World War II Europe in eastern Asia was devastated by war so the United States became the new empire without wanting to be an empire. “Some are born great some have greatness thrust upon them”. We had our empire thrust upon us.

[KostasKouvalis]

Do stoners not understand that they're a fucking laughing stock in most of the world, and being a stoner is nothing to boast about and be proud of?

You're a stoner, so WTF do you even know?

[Stoner710]

I haven’t smoked since 2019 I made the account in 2015

[BoopBoopBeep]

Our constitution can be amended. That is not true in all countries. That is what makes it a living document.

[strateguy632]

i dont think you mean dead. do you mean unchanging?

[Stoner710]

I mean it’s dead in the sense that you have to interpret the constitution as it was written when it was written the values we have in 2023 cannot be read into the constitution or an amendment that was passed in 1866. You can’t just make something up that’s not written in the constitution

[LunarEclipse433]

Your screen name says a lot. You obviously have never had to put your life on the line to protect that document and what it stands for. Go back to your video games in your mothers basement.

[Stoner710]

I’ve had the screen name since I was 24 when I was a liberal, My views have changed screen name hasn’t

[Cubus]

Left wingers just use this as an excuse to promote their agenda

[OddBeMe]

Right, if only we could Amend it…

[Stoner710]

You can amend the constitution, that’s not what constitutional originalism argues against. We agrue against an amendment that was written in 1866 being argued for 1973 values 2012 values or 2023 values. You have to use the values and what the words meant in 1866

[OddBeMe]

(Chuckle)…. wait we disregard the scientific renaissance and tech boom, and we should think what an ignorant 18th century Americans would do?

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

[Stoner710]

Yes you can have the scientific revolution and attack them and politically and constitutionally you have to follow the constitution when it was written as it was written so if an amendment was written in 1866, that amendment has to be interpreted the way it was written in 1866. Otherwise you might as well abandon the constitution and ever state or region that agrees with a certain state like Florida can I become one country? The constitution is only reason at this point why we are still 1 hole country,

[OddBeMe]

So when the 27th amendment was written in 1992 which affected congressional salaries…we should have written as doubloons instead of dollars…and of course income tax wasn’t a thing in the colonial era. Nor medical insurance. That’s a lot that would be left out of the 27th Amendment…

[Stoner710]

Maybe lol I don’t see why we should pay our elected officials they it encourages them to to actually go out and make there own money and then become politicians. It also encourages them to keep running for decades. Joe Biden has been in the senate since he was 29. Trump actually lost money form being president he didn’t get paid 1¢ for being president I understand medical insurance since we don’t want them dropping dead but they don’t deserve a pay check.

[OddBeMe]

True, it’s supposed to be a full time job. But ironically they spend more time raising money for campaigns than governing.

And trump didn’t lose money. Reporters just took harder looks at his “wealth” and decided he wasn’t a billionaire after all.
www.forbes.com/.../?sh=394f1f954a2d

[Stoner710]

So he did loose money, It says in the article that his golf property, Mar-a-Lago, and his real estate business in New York, lost money because was so unpopular. And he still didn’t take the government pay check. (A lot can be said about the legal fees as well). Think about this what is Donald Trump’s estate Donald Trump and not President Donald Trump? Do you really think his properties would have taken that much of a hit?

[OddBeMe]

Unpopular and valued less than he lied about.

[Stoner710]

Well when your business becomes unpopular you loose money, think if Trump ran as a democrat he would be loved and adored by the media his business would have grown significantly but he ran as a republican so he lost money people stopped going to his gold corses and stopped saying the night at his hotels and stop going to his real estate agents.

Think about this Obama was worth about 1.3 million in 2008 he now worth 70 million, Bush is worth a lot less then Obama but that’s because Obama is a Democratic bush is republicans republicans loose money after there in politics democrats get rich