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A Conversation On The Constitution: Justice Breyer And Justice Scalia

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In current day America there are two main ways of interpreting the constitution. These two ways are known as textualist and developmentalist philosophies. In the video “A Conversation on the Constitution” Justice Breyer and Justice Scalia both showcase many examples of these two philosophies and have a discussion on how both methods affect the modern political scene. This leads to a very insightful discussion on how the constitution should be interpreted; should it be interpreted as written or be interpreted to align with current societal values. The developmentalist philosophy is one that more sides with current political values and opinion of politics. A develpmentalist judge would be one that would take public opinion into consideration, because they believe that the court has the power to take legislative power in order to make a more fair set of rules. An example of this would be the case of Morse v Frederick. In …show more content…

This school of philosophy is one that reads the constitution and interprets it as it was written with little or no care about current societal standards or party affiliation. When the founders had set out to create the basis of this country they had a clear vision in mind and had given its citizens way to change it through means of legislation, not through the judicial system. The judicial systems sole purpose is to uphold the law not to alter or create. The Arguments on both sides case are valid but when looked at the Untited States as a skeleteal system, one must realize that the jobs set aside to court system is not one of creating legislation through different means, its job is to uphold the laws in a fair manner that allows for all citizens no matter where on the social or racial scale they land on. The courts should in one final definition be the playing ground in which all citizens are equal in case of their rights and nothing else, no matter the circumstance of the

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