With President Barack Obam’s recent nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, prepare to start hearing a lot of confusing viewpoints about what it means to be a “constitutionalist”.
So, I’ll start. Being a constitutionalist does not mean you believe the constitution is perfect – inerrant words directly from the mouth of God. After all, that’s what amendments are for, and why so many needed to be created so shortly after the constitution’s ratification. To clarify. To correct. So that interpreting the law wouldn’t require mass assumptions regarding “intent”.
Which is exactly where we’re at today. Because most people claim to be constitutionalists. We just all have different understandings of what the constitution means… or should mean.
But when a libertarian says they’re a constitutionalist, they mean that they believe in the rule of law. They believe the constitution serves to protect both the rights of the individual and the sovereignty of the states from the overreaching arm of the Federal Government. They believe that in order to do things the constitution doesn’t specify you can do, you need to make an amendment, because the law needs to be clear.
But rather than making the law clear, we’ve resorted to try and find people who see the constitution the way we wish it was.
Eric Olsen, Regular Columnist
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