The Principal Purpose Of Stare Decisis Is

The Death Penalty? Give Me A Break. It's Easy. Abortion? Absolutely Easy. Nobody Ever Thought The Constitution Prevented Restrictions On Abortion. Homosexual Sodomy? Come On. For 200 Years, It Was Criminal In Every State.

That's The Argument Of Flexibility And It Goes Something Like This: The Constitution Is Over 200 Years Old And Societies Change. It Has To Change With Society, Like A Living Organism, Or It Will Become Brittle And Break. But You Would Have To Be An Idiot To Believe That. The Constitution Is Not A Living Organism; It Is A Legal Document. It Says Something And Doesn't Say Other Things.

If We're Picking People To Draw Out Of Their Own Conscience And Experience A 'new' Constitution, We Should Not Look Principally For Good Lawyers. We Should Look To People Who Agree With Us. When We Are In That Mode, You Realize We Have Rendered The Constitution Useless.

Many Think It Not Only Inevitable But Entirely Proper That Liberty Give Way To Security In Times Of National Crisis--that, At The Extremes Of Military Exigency, Inter Arma Silent Leges. Whatever The General Merits Of The View That War Silences Law Or Modulates Its Voice, That View Has No Place In The Interpretation And Application Of A Constitution Designed Precisely To Confront War And, In A Manner That Accords With Democratic Principles, To Accommodate It.

The Wise Do Not Investigate Such Silliness.