Wednesday, April 16, 2014

"Perhaps You Should Revolt"

I'm sure this will make the rounds in the news - Scalia's response to a student who asked about the legality of the income tax was that the government has the right to take his money, but after it reaches a certain point, "perhaps you should revolt."

The story linked for this also quotes Scalia as saying,
“The Constitution is not a living organism for Pete’s sake. It’s a law. It means what it meant when it was adopted.”
I'm reminded of Randy Barnett's interview with SCOTUSBlog, where he discusses why he avoided Constitutional Law and pursued contract law. Specifically, at the time he made this choice, he saw that the text of contracts was enforceable and meant something concrete, but the current jurisprudence around the Constitution at the time demonstrated that nobody was constrained by the text of document. I like to think that's changing, and hopefully the composition of the Supreme Court will increasingly favor viewing the Constitution as a contract between the people and the state, with words that mean something.


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