Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Eastland, Huck, and the Living Constitution

Terry adopts a critical tone about Huck’s seemingly unscripted remarks about the Constitution, although he doesn’t point out anything Huck said that’s actually wrong.

Huck is quite critical of the academic "living Constitution" view that the Constitution can and should change or evolve through judicial interpretation. The Constitution has a mechanism for change--the amendment process. And it’s through amendment that the Constitution has changed--often to fulfuill better the intentions of the Declaration of Independence.

I haven’t heard any of the other candidates speak so clearly about the Constitution. Doesn’t Huck describe the living Constitution properly understood? Isn’t his a properly democratic and constitutional answer to the pretensions of judicial activism? (I hope you’re ok with this answer, Paul.)

UPDATE: My linking capability is disabled due to my incompetence, but: If you go to the Corner and scroll down to an entry by K-Lo, you will see Fred’s incredibly stupid attack on Huck on the living Constitution. According to Thompson, Huck’s view is identical to Gore’s about activist judges and all that. Anyone who can read or with any sense of fairness can see that’s not true. Of course, the Corner calls attention to the Fred attack in a seemingly favorable way. The heart of Fred’s so-called comeback, it seems to me, has been a series of unfair rants against Huckabee.

Discussions - 4 Comments

The problem is that we don't really know what he thinks on this matter. He claims that life, marriage, and speech are rights we all hold by nature, and then he says of political speech and 527s that "I personally wish all of this were outlawed."

Peter: "The heart of Fred’s so-called comeback, it seems to me, has been a series of unfair rants against Huckabee."

Contemporary politics has little room or sympathy for men of integrity. That's a sad statement, and I wish it weren't so. But it is.

I think the deal is that Thompson is hanging around to SC only to help his buddy McCain. The word was a month ago that Iowa was his last stand. Well, he stunk in Iowa, and got worse since but he's still around. I don't think Thompson is a bad guy, just a lightweight. However, his oddball stand in SC where he will probably still finish 4th has the hint of playing the spoiler. I can't think though what McCain can offer him in return-unless God forbid it would be VP. Two very old senators on the ticket...disaster.

I hope this isn't the case, but if Fred drops the day after SC and endorses McCain, we'll have to wonder.

I wonder whether concerning the "living Constitution" the Huckster is thinking of "ever-living God"--not the malleable document of Woodrow Wilson and Justice Holmes. I assume the early Progressives intended this phrase to exploit American faith.

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