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The Constitution And The Law

Decent Essays

Our Constitution is over two centuries old and since the birth of it as early as 1803 the Supreme Court defined its role and power in the case, Marbury v. Madison, 1803, establishing the authority to define what the law is. Thus, if the law is confusing, it is up to the courts to interpret the law through the process of judicial review. There is much controversy as to whether or not judges are following the laws as written or imposing their personal preferences and rewriting law to suit themselves. Ackerman believes “it’s a good thing that formal amendment is so hard; otherwise, the Constitution would become a mess, full of details signifying little,” (Ackerman, 2007 p. 1743). There are opposing viewpoints as to the approach and evolving perspectives in the decisions made by our judges. I will analysis the opposing proponents, originalists and Living Constitutionalists, viewpoints in their interpretation of the Constitution and present their arguments in relation to their perspective on the Constitution. In addition, I will apply their interpretational philosophies in the case Griswold v. Connecticut and ascertain the impact of their philosophies to the outcome of the case. The originalists, one of the two opposing proponents, believe in the theory of interpretation, that views the Constitution 's provisions mean what the framers and the citizens understood then to mean, (Strauss, 2010). In other words, the actual meaning of the provision governs if the original meaning of

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