I'm an originalist. A Constitution/bill of rights that changes with the political whims of the moment is dead. They were specifically designed to not change with passions of the moment and to have their principles remain consistent through time; this is the best way to ensure that the rights of political minorities/individuals remain protected.
I agree with this completely.
I also agree. People will sometimes strawman the originalist position by representing it as a worldview obsessed with old dead men. That misunderstands the point of the Constitution, though. It reflects a constant set of principles about what constitutes good government, and that is what the originalist position cares about. I do not adhere to the Constitutionalist position necessarily because it is the Constitution (though its role as the supreme law of the land must be recognized), but because it defines what is the
ne plus ultra of the proper role of government.
It does not matter what Jefferson would have thought about computers, but rather what the ideas on the role of government that form the foundation of the Constitution would have led one to conclude about computers. This is how we can know that "papers" includes digital content, even though such things obviously did not exist when the document was written.
Poll
