Scalia on the "Living Constitution"

The issue of whether or not our constitution is a "living document" is bound to be an issue on the campaign trail this fall. It always is.

While giving a speech on Monday to the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies Scalia criticized those who believe in what he called the "living Constitution." Here is what he said.

"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."
Proponents of the living constitution want matters to be decided not by the people, but by the justices of the Supreme Court."
"They are not looking for legal flexibility, they are looking for rigidity, whether it's the right to abortion or the right to homosexual activity, they want that right to be embedded from coast to coast and to be unchangeable."

How will this issue play in campaigns? Proponents of a living constitution will make no headway in their arguments to the people. There are only a handful of areas in the entire country where this issue can get into any sort traction. But campaigns across the country will try to use it.