Richard Posner is a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and a professor at the University of Chicago Law School. In an op-ed for Slate, he said that he sees “absolutely no value” in judges devoting even seconds to studying the Constitution. Even the Bill of Rights does “not speak to us today.”
Here is a link to what he said. Cal Thomas dissects it after the jump. Then I jump in on the topic, how could the United States cease to exist?
From Cal Thomas, At Stake: The Constitution -Townhall:
In his op-ed, as reported by The Washington Times, Judge Posner claims to see “absolutely no value” in studying the Constitution because “18th-century guys, however smart, could not foresee the culture, technology, etc., of the 21st century.” I suspect if they had seen modern culture with our fixation on Kim Kardashian, they might have retreated to England.
Even the Bill of Rights, says Posner, “do not speak to today.”
Wow. Freedom of speech, assembly, the press, religion, no warrantless searches and more are outmoded concepts? Who knew?
Posner continued: “I see absolutely no value to a judge of spending decades, years, months, weeks, day, hours, minutes, or seconds studying the Constitution, the history of its enactment, its amendments, and its implementation (across the centuries — well, just a little more than two centuries, and of course less for many of the amendments).”
After receiving severe criticism, Judge Posner apologized for his “careless” remarks, but he still doesn’t think the Constitution is relevant for today because, you know, those dead white guys owned slaves and didn’t have the internet.
I’ve heard it said that if one presidential candidate or the other–or either–wins the election, our country could cease to exist. That is surely overblown. How could our nation cease to exist? But if our Constitution no longer applies, then the United States of America would cease to exist, though another nation–possibly with the same name, though authoritarian in nature–would take its place.
We have already drifted very far from the Constitution. Imagine if it becomes totally ignored, then dropped out of our law school curricula, leaving judges and our officials to rule by decree.
It’s interesting that Posner thinks the Bill of Rights is also outdated, which indicates the authoritarian preference of this liberal jurist, for whom individual rights and liberties just get in the way.
Our country could go the way of so many churches which have a foundational confession of faith, but they don’t follow it any more. It has a historical interest but there is nothing binding about it.
