With his hunting pal Dick Cheney having shot an attorney over the weekend, Justice Scalia decided to take aim at a group of lawyers himself last night. The AP is reporting that in a speech delivered in Puerto Rico at a Federalist Society confab, Scalia said that one would have to be an “idiot” to believe the Constitution would break if it didn’t change with society.
Scalia also reportedly delivered some of the comments in the Bob Dole-esque third person: “Scalia does have a philosophy, it’s called originalism. That’s what prevents him from doing the things he would like to do.” And according to that judicial philosophy, he said, there can be no room for personal, political or religious beliefs.
Here’s the money quote critical of the anti-originalists, or so-called living constitutionalists:
That’s the argument of flexibility and it goes something like this: The Constitution is over 200 years old and societies change. It has to change with society, like a living organism, or it will become brittle and break. But you would have to be an idiot to believe that. The Constitution is not a living organism, it is a legal document. It says something and doesn’t say other things.