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del.icio.usChief justice: Constitution is a contract
John Roberts spoke at the University of Kansas on Wednesday.
Associated Press
LAWRENCE - U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. said Wednesday that he doesn't think it's helpful to debate whether the U.S. Constitution is a "living" or "dead" document.
Roberts briefly addressed comments made by Justice Antonin Scalia in a recent interview for the CBS program "60 Minutes." Scalia said he opposes the concept of the Constitution as a living document whose meaning changes as times and judges' values change.
Visiting the University of Kansas, Roberts also discussed the U.S. Supreme Court's role as an arbiter of free speech disputes and a check on executive power, though he warned his audience of about 2,000 that he wouldn't discuss specific cases. After giving a lecture about the Louisiana Purchase, he took questions from students.
One of them, third-year law student Adam Davis, asked about Scalia's comments and whether Roberts considered the Constitution a "living, breathing document."
Roberts joked: "You know, Justice Scalia gets all the good air time."
He said he views the Constitution partly as a contract between the people and their government. He said it lives in the sense that its drafters meant it to apply into the future, noting that they probably couldn't have foreseen inventions such as the automobile.
But he added, "Legal documents don't live or die."
In his interview with "60 Minutes," Scalia said he didn't describe himself as an originalist who gives language in the various amendments the meaning it had when adopted. He said that when people talk about a living constitution, he's forced into defending a "presumably dead Constitution."
Roberts noted the debate over whether the Constitution is a living document is a long-standing one.
"I think it's wrong and not very helpful," he said. "Dead is not the alternative."
Roberts, an appointee of President Bush, became chief justice in September 2005.
He is part of the court's conservative bloc, and he told his audience that he thinks the nation's founders would be uncomfortable with having constitutional changes come from the federal judiciary, whose members are unelected.
"We're different because we're not elected," Roberts said.
Annie Van Allen, a senior business school student, asked Roberts about how he viewed the court's role in free-speech cases.
Before Roberts' lecture began, a small group of protesters from Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church stood outside as part of their ongoing protests against homosexuality, along with a few counterprotesters.
"It's certainly the responsibility of the Supreme Court to uphold freedom of speech, even when it's unpopular," Roberts said.
He mentioned flag-burning as an example: "We allow that kind of speech even though we find it offensive."
Roberts also said the court acts as a check on executive power, citing Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman as presidents who were frustrated by the court.
"There's always been that conflict," he said.
He told his audience that it was appropriate for him to talk about the Louisiana Purchase because Wednesday marked the 205th anniversary of the treaty between the United States and France, in which France sold a large portion of the continent for $15 million. Also, he noted, what is now Kansas was part of that territory.
