Is
the Constitution a Living or Dead Document?*
There is a question circling
around our country. From the halls and rooms of the U.S. Capitol, to courtrooms
and lawyer’s offices nationwide, right down to citizen’s homes, there is a
question being asked. Is the Constitution living or dead? Well, is it?
First we must understand what
they mean by ‘living’ and ‘dead’. If the Constitution is a living document that
would mean that it could be ‘updated’ in the sense that it could be made to fit
the modern interpretations and moral code of the present day. If it is a dead
document that would mean it is supposed to be used and interpreted the way the
framers and signers meant.
I vote for the second
definition. We have a way to update and add to the Constitution as the world
changes. The Founding Fathers knew that there would be future events that would
cause changes needing to be made in the Constitution. Hence, Article V in the
Constitution. Article V, gives Congress the power to when they think it
necessary, to make amendments.
One of the most major
amendments in our Constitution was after the Civil War, when the 13th,
14th, and 15th amendments were made. Major in the sense
they brought a large change about in our country. Even though there were
problems and abuses for many years afterwards, these amendments brought radical
change. Slavery had been part of our country since the beginning, and then
suddenly it was gone, outlawed. There were places in our country it was
outlawed before but never in all of the country. Those amendments were
far-reaching and drastic.
So to get back to my point; we
have a way to, as they come up, make needed changes. What we don’t or shouldn’t
have, are ways to subject our Constitution to the ideas and moral standards of
judges and lawyers. So let’s say, the Constitution is a ‘living’ document. Who
defines what changes we can make? What changes could we make? Whose moral code
do we follow? Are the changes to be made a by a select few or are the people
going to vote to choose which ones go through? How many changes could we make
before we just rewrote the whole thing?
Think about it, if people were
allowed to make changes to the Constitution, how far is too far? If you give it
some thought you could conceive the idea that if we were allowed to make any
change we wanted, some might think it would be better to rewrite the whole
Constitution to fit the moral code and issues of today.
The Constitution has lasted this
long and it has done fine going through the different changes in society. What
is an issue now may not be an issue later; instead there will be new issues as
time changes. Take the drone debate, there was no debate fifty years ago. Come
to think of it, there weren’t any drones at that time. Unless you know
something I don’t, I mean, it’s not like I was alive back then.
So the issues we think are so
important right now might be irrelevant in fifty, thirty, maybe even twenty
years from now. The Constitution is timeless. It is a set of basic laws as to
what our government can and can’t do. It is the basis for our government.
People talk about how much control the government has over our lives. Think of
how much more control they might have if they were able to rewrite the
Constitution to how they think it should be.
Frightening. Seriously.
So if the Constitution is a
‘dead’ document, we use it in the way the framers meant. We stay true to the
original meaning. We take it for what it says and stop trying to mold it to
what we want it to say. The Constitution says, what it says; stop trying to add
in what you think because of it general phrasing.
This is my opinion. That
the Constitution is to be used as the framers and writers wrote it. It is to be
used how they intended the Constitution to be used. Issues can be, and have
been resolved. We cannot make the Constitution fit our whims, whims change;
hence the word whims. So that’s where we stand. I think that the Constitution
is a ‘dead’ document. But it is full of meaning and is still relevant to this
day.
Emily
L. Wardwell 4/5/13 *I wrote this for my government course in school last April.
