Constitutional Relevance Quotes
Advising candidates for the state legislature:
The Grammar Curmudgeon. This is one side of a fundamental argument within America as to the Constitution. The other side argues that the original intent of the Founding Fathers should prevail. That their principles are what has made America great, and we do not want to deviate from those. In determining Constitutionality, it is the original intent that should prevail even if the issues are ones of which the founding fathers had no inkling such as the ability of a nuclear power to destroy much of the nation before Congress could be called into session or that police could use geo-positioning devices to track the movement of citizens. Or that women could prove themselves the equal of (or superior to) in intellectual pursuits and would want to participate in politics and policy making.
There are many countries that adhere to a rule of law, for which their Constitution is the fundamental document providing a framework for their legal system which is adhered to. A few nations which are strong adherents to the rule of law, but have no constitution; the instead have a very strong system of Common Law which establishes their legal precedents and a legislative tradition of restraint which provides fixed principles (Great Britain and Israel are two good examples). But the biggest problem for many countries in not adhering to the rule of law, is having a written constitution and then ignoring it when making legal decisions for the nation, Balaguer’s quotation here is typical of the attitude which causes nations with fine constitutions to function without any serious adherence to rule of law.
