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It's probably good to notice that, in this case, Congress did change the law. They set up the review system in question in 2011. The issue is that, in order to
by curun1r 9y ago
It's probably good to notice that, in this case, Congress did change the law. They set up the review system in question in 2011. The issue is that, in order to avoid the kind of 200-year-old principles complaint of the post you're replying to, Congress would not only need to change the law, but also amend the Constitution. That's much more difficult, but it's something we should be doing a lot more.
You would think that the further we are removed from the revolutionary war period, the more hindsight we would have and the more wisdom we could bring to the founding principles of our government. But we've seen the exact opposite. Amendments to the Constitution have become less frequent, not more to the point where it's been decades since we've had one and, discounting amendments that focus on the mechanics of government (voting, term limits, government salaries, etc) the most recent one of any consequence just reversed the previous one of that sort.
- philwelch 9y agoIt’s hard to amend the constitution, and there are lots of failed attempts for each amendment that eventually passes. Part of that is by design, so we don’t end up with something dumb like a vague counterterrorism amendment passed in late 2001 that repeals half of the Bill of Rights. But I think if there were more originalist judicial decisions, that would apply political backpressure towards the amendment process instead. Of course, that would slow down the rate of changes, which is almost a definitional part of conservatism.