Tuesday, November 21, 2006
the Constitution and Your Mortgage
I was introduced to a friend's girlfriend. She is very liberal and a lawyer. We had a nice conversation about my undergraduate honors thesis which was about rights theories and the Constitution.
After having a visceral reaction to my mentioning Scalia's method of determining rights, I pointed out that Scalia's system for determining is very smart (although it may have flaws). Scalia tries to determine the rights we had at the writing of the Constitution.
She replied with a typical query. Do we want to treat a 300-year document that rigidly?
Well, do we treat pre-nuptial agreements or mortgages like that? (Thank you John Rabe for the insight. Forget when. But thanks.)
Is the constitution a contract?
Yes, one between the people.
She saw the logic. And that was cool. That doesn't mean she isn't still a liberal. But it was still cool.
I was introduced to a friend's girlfriend. She is very liberal and a lawyer. We had a nice conversation about my undergraduate honors thesis which was about rights theories and the Constitution.
After having a visceral reaction to my mentioning Scalia's method of determining rights, I pointed out that Scalia's system for determining is very smart (although it may have flaws). Scalia tries to determine the rights we had at the writing of the Constitution.
She replied with a typical query. Do we want to treat a 300-year document that rigidly?
Well, do we treat pre-nuptial agreements or mortgages like that? (Thank you John Rabe for the insight. Forget when. But thanks.)
Is the constitution a contract?
Yes, one between the people.
She saw the logic. And that was cool. That doesn't mean she isn't still a liberal. But it was still cool.
