Founders' Quote Daily

[unixronin]

"[T]here is not a syllable in the plan under consideration which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution."

— Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 81, 1788)

On the one hand, one might consider this a bad thing, as a failure in intention.

On the other hand, just consider where we might be now had the law been extensively "construed in the spirit of the Constitution" by the kind of people who can stand up and say with a straight face in front of the national press that the words "the People" mean "the People" everywhere that they are used throughout the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, except in the Second Amendment, where they mean either "the States" or "the Federal Government" depending upon the speaker's whim of the moment.

It makes about as little sense as the idea that you can prevent teenage pregnancy and STDs by refusing to teach teenagers about birth control and safe sex.

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Sure the US constitution has it's flaws, but it is a damn sight better than what we have today.

I like the Swiss model. Everyone is conscripted into the militia. You are issued a rifle at training, and you turn it in when you retire. You are responsible for maintaining it and keeping you shooting skills up to snuff. At least that is what is was fifty years back.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There is, indeed, a great deal to be said for the Swiss model.