I feel that yes the constitution should be referred to, but that we need to stop being ashamed by the "living document" idea because its been around for 230 years and new issues arise that could theoretically invalidate some of the amendments. I feel that when people say "is it in the constitution" that they are effectively trying to end the argument and, to quote Molyneux, is "not an argument".
I think the Constitution is written broadly enough so that it can apply to a range of situations. Example the 4th Amendment protects citizens from "unreasonable" searches and seizures without a warrant. Just that one word makes all the difference and courts have interpreted that to give the police the power to search you for all kinds of reasons like exigent circumstances, searches incident to arrest, inventory searches of cars, etc.
