Souter defends judicial activism: Says perspectives change with time

[usregimechange]

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter removes his cap after receiving an honorary degree during Harvard University Commencement exercises, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, May 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds - AP)


CAMBRIDGE — Retired Supreme Court justice David H. Souter, delivering the commencement speech at Harvard University yesterday, defended justices who interpret the Constitution and identify rights not explicitly mentioned in America’s founding document.

As the Senate prepares to hold confirmation hearings for former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee for the high court, Souter said that people who contend that deciding constitutional cases simply entails a straightforward “fair reading’’ of the Constitution are being unrealistic.

Not only does the Constitution contain “a lot of general language in order to be useful over long stretches of time,’’ the 70-year-old jurist told a sea of new graduates and alumni, but it “contains values that may well exist in tension with each other, not in harmony.’’

“The Constitution is a pantheon of values, and a lot of hard cases are hard because the Constitution gives no simple rule of decision for the cases in which one of the values is truly at odds with another,’’ Souter, a 1961 graduate of Harvard College and a 1966 graduate of Harvard Law School, said at the university’s 359th commencement. The university awarded 7,125 degrees and 89 certificates at the ceremony in the outdoor Tercentenary Theater.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2010/05/28/souter_defends_judicial_activism/

[joeybee12]

1. He's absolutely right...the constitution was meant to be a living, breathing, document...n/t

[Democat]

2. Republicans wish slavery was still legal.

So to them, everything except the reinstatement of slavery is judicial activism.