The Constitution is up to everyone to interpret, not just Supreme Court Justices


After my column published Nov. 11 concerning the misguided views some people have regarding the Constitution, I received an e-mail from one of my dear readers:

“Jason: There are exactly nine people in this world who can tell you what the Constitution means. I’m not one of them, and neither are you.” It made me pause for a minute.

My reply was short: “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. Look at Kelo.”

In the case, the Supreme Court ruled that eminent domain could justify transferring land from a private owner to someone else if it produced economic development. In short, private ownership of land could be taken away if it benefited an entire community.

Kelo v. City of New London (2005) is certainly one decision that people in all areas of the political spectrum thought got botched. I thought Hell had frozen over a given Sandra Day O’Connor opinion that I agreed with.

With a decision such as Kelo, how is it even possible to say that the Supreme Court, collectively at a minimum, knows what the Constitution means? I’d argue that even individual justices have a hard time grasping what it means.

A look at Justice Breyer’s views regarding The Constitution during D.C. v. Heller (http://tinyurl.com/5ackrz) indicates that he merely sees the Constitution as a suggestion when he mentions his “interest-balancing inquiry” (Pg. 62).

Justice Scalia, who has held an opinion or three I disagree with, was correct in calling Breyer out. “A constitutional guarantee subject to future judges’ assessments of its usefulness is no constitutional guarantee at all.”

Excuse me if my attitude toward the Supreme Court is a bit abrasive.

With a court that thinks the transfer of property is legitimate use of eminent domain and judges on the bench that think constitutional protections only extend to the point they do not interfere with some governmental agenda, it shouldn’t be any surprise that I disagree with the statement that “there are exactly nine people” who can tell me what The Constitution means.

I sometimes wonder if blindfolded monkeys throwing darts could make judicial decisions just as well as those who supposedly are the experts. After all, the concept seems to work well enough for the stock market.

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