It is a written Constitution that we are interpreting

[Robert Sheridan]

  In other words no one need apply to interpret the Constitution except 
you, for you're about the only one I've ever heard of who takes such 
an...not to say idiosyncratic, position (with respect for the effort).

The Framers wrote the damn thing for the likes of me and the rest of us 
to use and I doubt they expected us to consult more than the text.  
There are no footnotes referring to sources and methods.  This is our 
hobby.  They certainly didn't expect us to psychoanalyze them.  As for 
Shakespeare, the guy made a living out of creating ambiguity, see H. 
Amlet.  A masterpiece of one confused guy by a very clever guy.  Harold 
Bloom still can't figure him out, so he's raised him to the godhead of 
fictional characters, which is what I think the Originalists tend to do 
about the Text, claiming to have some special insight that the rest of 
us are, admittedly, incapable of doing.  Seeking Original Meaning is 
perhaps the biggest expenditure, not to say waste, of time I've ever 
heard of, other than trying to define "reason" or which political party 
is always right.

As I understand it from somewhere, the Framers wrote as simply and 
clearly as they could so that ordinary folk wouldn't have a great deal 
of difficulty understanding what they were trying to get across, which 
is why the guy on the bus gets the same one vote as any of us here do.  
Amazing, isn't it, that we only get one vote after all the discussion of 
the Constitution we've done?  Reminds me of the complaint of Tex in 
"Catch-22" who thought that Good Ol' Boys like him deserved more votes 
than say, blacks.  Where is Joseph Heller when we need him...?

rs



On 9/21/2010 6:22 AM, Jon Roland wrote:
> Yes, but written in the idiomatic legal English of 1787, which is a 
> foreign language to people today. To understand it, as to understand 
> any foreign language, one must immerse oneself in the culture of the 
> time and place it was used. The assurance that one has done that comes 
> when one can reliably predict the next words and style of authors on a 
> topic. One has to be able to think, speak, and write in their words 
> with their style. Try writing a play in the English of Shakespeare and 
> you will get a sense of it.
>
> The Founders expected future generations to use the same common law 
> rules of construction they used, which are very different from the 
> rules of construction that evolved later. Power delegations were 
> always to be interpreted strictly and narrowly, regardless of whether 
> a word like "expressly" was redundantly used for emphasis. "General 
> welfare" was not an additional delegation of power, but a restriction 
> on other delegated powers. And delegations of powers were only 
> authorizations to make a certain kind of limited effort, not to do 
> whatever might be convenient to get a desired outcome. That could 
> imply administrative lesser included powers, but not efforts of a 
> different kind, as such efforts were classified. The powers to tax, to 
> spend, to regulate, to prohibit, to promote, to provide, to prosecute 
> as a crime, were all distinct powers, none of which could be derived 
> from any of the others.
>
> On 09/21/2010 07:38 AM, Calvin Johnson wrote:
>>          But  is it not a written Constitution that we are interpreting?
>>    
> -- Jon
>
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