She is Alison LaCroix, a Professor of Law and an associate member of the Department of History at the University of Chicago. She quotes a colleague when she says, “There are wrong answers in constitutional law and there are right answers, and the right answers change over time.”
Wait a minute….
What is your first reaction to this? Do you think that the Constitution is applicable to all times in the life of American history? Or, should it’s meaning deviate from the original intent of the Founders and “live and breathe” with changing times in history?
My gut reaction is to recognize that professors are academically elite and we will now be influenced to follow their reasoning because they are more highly educated than the rest of us. Dr. LaCroix presents cogent thinking in her argument. However, the Constitution was written for We, the People and not We, the Intelligentsia. The Founders were highly gifted intellectually (among other ways) as well. They crafted a document that was meant to serve as the organic law of the land. The Founders even provided a way to amend the Constitution, should it be necessary (see Article V).
If the Constitution was meant to live and breathe with each generation, why did the Founders include their posterity (that is, you and me) in the Preamble? Why would We the People ordain and establish THIS constitution for the United States of America? Their own words were definitive. Their process for amending was defined.
“(We the People) …secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Let’s have a respectful, courteous discussion that is not about parties, personalities, factions, or shaming. Instead, let’s discuss principles in honor of Constitution Day (September 17). Should the Constitution be interpreted with original intent? Or should it be a document that changes with the times? I am on the side of the Founders and their original intent. I believe that is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.??
