Antonin Scalia has this great observation which is far too often ignored because he rubs 60% of lawyers and 18% of the population at large the wrong way. Paraphrased, it goes something like this: We are very close to unique among nations for how we view our Constitution. The closest we have for a State toast of royalty would be, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Constitution of the United States.” (The presumption of course is that none of President Obama’s more ardent followers is making the toast.) The word “unconstitutional,” with its literal meaning and its suggestion of something fixated between sin, error, treason, and rejection, is America’s unique contribution to the world.
At the heart of Justice Scalia’s observation is the belief that the American view of the world is one in which the primacy of the rule of law is a given. It’s particularly clever because in a world of extraordinary rationalism, scientific reduction, and attempts to model human behavior with mere mathematics, we tend to forget that nations and cultures may have guiding stars other than the mere accumulation of wealth and power — and that sometimes, wealth and power are just the means to achieving those ends.
Read Full Article »