Work is a little slow today since I’m transitioning to a new assignment and doing a lot of knowledge transfer (which requires I wait on other people to become available), so I figured I’d do a quick update on some stuff I’ve been looking at recently.
A buddy of mine sent me the following link: http://tv.nationalreview.com/uncommonknowledge/. I recommend you check the Antonin Scalia interview, which starts on March 16th and carries on for 5 parts, and contemplate some of what he’s saying. Whether you agree with him or not, I think it is certainly worth listening to and appreciating as a strong opinion on the Constitution and the role of the judiciary.
I’ve been reading the book Outliers recently, and I’ve really enjoyed it. I think Gladwell can be a bit verbose with his books, but I appreciate his thought process and ability to break things down. I haven’t finished yet, but I’m working through the final couple of chapters and would certainly have to recommend the book so far. I hope I can take some things from it and apply them to my specific circumstances, but again we’ll have to see what my overall opinion is once I’m done. I’ve already had a couple of spiritual insights that I’ve pulled from the book that I may share as well.
In other news, I’ll be moving out of my office at the Baytown refinery and heading down to the ExxonMobil building at 800 Bell St. in Houston. I’m excited for a change, and I’m already pretty confident that I will be working with a really solid team. And I’ll be honest, a shorter commute is certainly an exciting proposition!
I’ll add more in the coming days - I always have a lot to ponder.
Oh, and I’m having dinner with Dad tonight, which is exciting! Not everyday I have family in town…
“Law and Justice with Antonin Scalia” is a fascinating and enlightening interview.
Regarding the activist Constitution interpretation, Justice Scalia explained:
“Much of the harm that has been done in recent years by activist constitution interpretation is made possible by a theory which says that unlike an ordinary law which doesn’t change – it means what it meant when it was enacted and will always mean that – the Constitution changes from decade to decade to comport with the “evolving standards of decency” that mark the progress of a maturing society. In other words we have a morphing constitution. And of course it is up to the court to decide when it morphs and how it morphs. That’s generally paraded as the “living constitution” and unfortunately that philosophy has made enormous headway with lawyers and judges but even with John Q Public.”
Elaborating on his earlier statement that “devotees of The Living Constitution do not seek to facilitate social change but to prevent it” (Scalia & Gutmann, 1998), Justice Scalia said:
“To make things change you don’t need a constitution. The function of a Constitution is to rigidify, to ossify, NOT to facilitate change. You want change? All you need is a legislature and a ballot box. Things will change as fast as you like. My Constitution, very flexible changing on you. You want right to abortion? Persuade your fellow citizens that it is a good idea, and pass a law. And then you find out, the results are worst than we ever thought, you can repeal the law. That’s flexibility. The reason people want the Supreme Court to declare that abortion is a constitutional right is precisely to rigidify that right, it means it sweeps across all fifty states and it is a law now and forever or until the Supreme Court changes its mind. That’s not flexibility.”
“By trying to make the Constitution do everything that needs doing from age to age, we shall have caused it to do nothing at all.” (Scalia & Gutmann, 1998)
Source(s):
Scalia, A., & Gutmann, A. (1998). A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law. Princeton University Press.