There is No Such Thing as an Originalist
You know how I can tell Republicans are always lying when they claim to be originalists? They liked the Supreme Court overturning the results of the 2000 presidential election in Florida for partizan reasons. you know how else I can tell? They want to overturn Roe vs. wade even though women having abortions was completely normal and non-controversial in the 18th century except amoung Catholics, which the Founding fathers pretty much weren't.
Look, the Founding fathers themselves thought the constitution was a living document that ought to change and be amended over time because they had the sense to know they had no idea what was going to be happening decades, let alone centuries head. Originalist argument themselves violate a founding principle actually written into Article V of the constitution itself. That's why the directions for amending the constitution are right there. It's also all over the arguments people made in print and in letters and in the constitutional convention. The idea that society and thus laws and interpretations will change superceeds all the individual opinions about, say, whether there should be a national bank or individual opinions about the rights of various groups of people. I don't want to go back to slavery. I don't want to go back to women having no right to vote or hold property. I am not an originalist though I do hold to the rule of law.
And you know what? The people claiming to be originalists are liars because they are happy to not only pick and choose one founder in one argument and an opposing one in another, but they will happily throw away founder opinions when in suits them as in Bush v. Gore or anti-abortion laws or in judgements that privilege the rights of corporations over the rights of human type citizens, all of which I know would have horrified them as a group.
I am not an originalist. I think human rights for all people is more important than the right to own someone else, or to persecute someone else, or discriminate against someone else. I think that human type people are people and corporations aren't. I am honest and open about that.
They aren't originalists either, they just lie that they are to make it seem like their cruelty and greed are somehow good.
Fuck that.
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1867134.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Look, the Founding fathers themselves thought the constitution was a living document that ought to change and be amended over time because they had the sense to know they had no idea what was going to be happening decades, let alone centuries head. Originalist argument themselves violate a founding principle actually written into Article V of the constitution itself. That's why the directions for amending the constitution are right there. It's also all over the arguments people made in print and in letters and in the constitutional convention. The idea that society and thus laws and interpretations will change superceeds all the individual opinions about, say, whether there should be a national bank or individual opinions about the rights of various groups of people. I don't want to go back to slavery. I don't want to go back to women having no right to vote or hold property. I am not an originalist though I do hold to the rule of law.
And you know what? The people claiming to be originalists are liars because they are happy to not only pick and choose one founder in one argument and an opposing one in another, but they will happily throw away founder opinions when in suits them as in Bush v. Gore or anti-abortion laws or in judgements that privilege the rights of corporations over the rights of human type citizens, all of which I know would have horrified them as a group.
I am not an originalist. I think human rights for all people is more important than the right to own someone else, or to persecute someone else, or discriminate against someone else. I think that human type people are people and corporations aren't. I am honest and open about that.
They aren't originalists either, they just lie that they are to make it seem like their cruelty and greed are somehow good.
Fuck that.
This entry was originally posted at http://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/1867134.html. Please comment there using OpenID.