The following quote is from Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in 2016:
The Constitution that I interpret and apply is not living but dead, or as I prefer to call it, enduring. It means today not
what current society, much less the court, thinks it ought to mean, but what it meant when it was adopted.
The following excerpt is from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson:
I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand
with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are
made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must
advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when
a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
What can the reader logically conclude from reading the two passages above?
The excerpt by Scalia serves as a factual rather than judgmental analysis of Jefferson's views
and urges a more balanced examination of the Constitution.
The overall theme of each excerpt is presented differently, but ultimately both men are advocating
for changes to the Constitution.
The two excerpts likely represent iconic fundamental arguments for two opposite interpretations
of the country's guiding document.
