Words Have Meaning. And Their Meaning Doesn't

It Is Difficult To Maintain The Illusion That We Are Interpreting A Constitution, Rather Than Inventing One.

Words No Longer Have Meaning If An Exchange That Is Not Established By A State Is "established By The State".

On This Day, When We're Celebrating Our Constitutional Heritage, I Urge You To Be Faithful To That Heritage - To Impose On Our Fellow Citizens Only The Restrictions That Are There In The Constitution, Not Invent New Ones, Not To Invent The Right Because It's A Good Idea.

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.

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.