Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter's Speech is Prophetic

"Souter Believes Constitution’s Text Causes Bad Decisions"

 by Pastor Hal Mayer, Keep the Faith

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter recently gave a speech at Harvard University in which he argued that “seeking to resolve difficult constitutional questions based on an honest effort to construe that document’s words (whether broadly or narrowly) ‘has only a tenuous connection to reality’ and leads to bad decisions.”

In other words, he said that the text of the constitution does not reflect real situations today and that using the text to make decisions often leads to bad ones. Instead Souter would rather that justices make decisions based on their own understanding of priorities and personal preferences.

“Souter’s candor is commendable but also genuinely troubling,” wrote a USA today commentator… “Souter… argues that the Constitution is too full of ambiguous language and competing imperatives to sustain a textual approach to its interpretation,” and sometimes competing interests are irreconcilable.  “It is, therefore, the courts (and the Supreme Court especially), that Souter believes must “decide which of our approved desires has the better claim,” and this cannot be done simply by reading the Constitution’s words. Put differently, we all must trust in the judges to find our way through the morass, to make the right choices between competing constitutional imperatives, and we cannot accuse them of making up the law when they make choices we do not like. It is their job, not ours.”

“…Judges are people, not the living embodiment of the law. When a judge makes the choices Souter suggests, without regard to the Constitution’s words and their original meaning, it is the judges who rule and not the law.

“The bottom line is that bad constitutional decisions, far from being the result of the Constitution’s frailty, are caused by the frailties of judges who depart from it.”

To suggest that the text of the U.S. Constitution is not relevant to today’s jurisprudence, is essentially saying that Judges should rule the land. David Souter would not make this comment unless he had some reason to believe that there would be those that would resonate with this idea. He believes that the U.S. Constitution can be re-interpreted in the context of our times, just like some theologians believe that Paul’s writings are not really relevant today, and should be re-interpreted according to the times in which we live.

Souter’s statement is also prophetic. He is testing public opinion to determine if the traditional approach to Constitutional law is still strong enough to resist a fluid interpretation based on changing circumstances and public opinions. Remember that eventually the people, under great fear and pressure of dramatically changed circumstances, will demand a Sunday worship law, and the supreme court will go along with them to defend it. But the strict interpretation of the text will not permit Sunday worship laws. Therefore, there has to be a change in the way the constitution is interpreted. Watch for it. It is near at hand, and indeed is already happening.

The fact that Souter made this statement, tells us that he very likely conducted himself on the Supreme Court in harmony with these views. He is not alone. Other Supreme Court justices have made similar remarks in recent years. Once the foundation is laid for a new approach to the Constitution, it will come. Indeed it already has begun.

Incidentally, these Supreme Court Justices are not the only ones that despise the U.S. Constitution. Many presidents, and members of Congress also have worked to repudiate various provisions of the constitution in recent years.

The U.S. Constitution has been under assault from many different angles for a long time. It is a wonder that it has held up as long as it has, which says a lot about the venerable document and those who framed it.

“When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5. Page 451.     USA Today                          SOURCE:   Keep the Faith