Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Justice Scalia
Group rallies over Rice vs. Cayetano
derides concept of
‘morphing Constitution’By Mary Adamski
Star-BulletinU.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told Honolulu lawyers and law students that people today bring cases to the U.S. Supreme Court believing that the Constitution "will say what this generation wants it to say."
"What they say is, if you feel passionately enough ... you can find it in there."
The idea of "a living Constitution whose meaning changes from generation to generation ... I hate it, the morphing Constitution," Scalia told an audience yesterday. "The Constitution is not an organism, it is a system of government."
Scalia and Judge Myron H. Bright of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, here to participate in the University of Hawaii William A. Richardson School of Law Jurists in the Classroom program, spoke to about 200 people and met the local legal community at a reception at the Hawaii Supreme Court.
Scalia, who is seen as one of the high court's most conservative justices, described himself as one of a "small band of originalists." He said when he reflects on cases "I have to figure out what it meant to them, the framers of the Constitution. What would that society that adopted the Bill of Rights, what would they have done?"
Following that philosophy isn't easy, he said, pointing to the 1990 case in which his vote made a majority upholding flag-burning as political expression protected by the First Amendment. "It was uncomfortable ... I don't like scruffy people who burn the flag."
A questioner pointed out that when passionate causes brought social and civil rights issues to the high court in the mid-1900s, it was a time when no other body would address the problems.
"Most of the advances in civil rights have not been done by the Supreme Court but by legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964," the justice said.
Scalia cautioned against changing the Constitution by adding amendments that reflect social or political movements of the times. He mentioned current issues such as the pros and cons of abortion, homosexual activities or the death penalty.
"When something is put in the Bill of Rights, it is taken out of the democratic process. We're saying these are the things that we are not going to vote about. Every time they add things to the Bill of Rights, it diminishes the Constitution."
He said others believe the document and court interpretation of it reflect "evolving standards of decency, as if every day in every way, we get better and better. The framers did not see it that way. They wrote what they saw as unchanging. If you need change, you go to the Legislature and the ballot box."
A symposium will be held Friday to discuss some of Scalia's controversial opinions on the First Amendment clauses regarding the freedom of religious expression and separation of church and state. The public program at 4:30 p.m. at Orvis Auditorium will be sponsored by the UH law school Law Review.
Group rallies over
By Leila Fujimori
Rice vs. Cayetano case
Star-BulletinA handful of native Hawaiian rights supporters hoped a visiting U.S. Supreme Court justice could see the faces of the people he could affect in deciding the Rice vs. Cayetano case.
The People Organized for Justice rallied with signs outside the Hawaii Supreme Court yesterday, while U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia spoke inside.
But Scalia never saw the supporters' faces before he spoke. And the group disbanded before Scalia finished his 2 1/2-hour speech.
Group members, however, did not expect to influence Scalia's decision in Rice vs. Cayetano, still pending before the court. The case involves Freddy Rice's contention that the OHA elections, which are restricted to native Hawaiians, are discriminatory based on race.
But the group wanted to call attention to Scalia's conservative stance.
The group, made up of native Hawaiian organizations, is concerned that a decision in favor of Rice would set a precedent that would deny native Hawaiians and native Americans federal funding of social programs and provisions, as well as lands and monies.
Lea Kanehe, group spokeswoman, said a decision favoring Rice would result in dismantling civil rights, affirmative action and rights of minorities.
OHA Special
Rice vs. Cayetano
