The single most urgent and overriding function of our Constitution is to insure that the rights of those who lack the votes to enact policy are not wrongfully diminished or debased because of their minority status. That protective imperative is timeless and should not be subject to changing mores, concepts or language.
But to the extent that the Constitution also serves as a blueprint for governance, it is foolish and unhelpful to worship words or concepts crafted in another time to deal with a very different world. Many of the Founders had perspectives about slavery, race, punishment, women's rights and social relationships that are completely out of step with modern thought and philosophy. Because they knew change was inevitable, and necessary, they bequeathed to their posterity a document that can live, breathe and adapt.
To insist that today's legal and moral issues must be resolved only by reference to the Constitution's 18th century language, or to the meaning attributed to such language by its contemporary populace, is neither justified nor forward looking. Such an approach merely straitjackets our society and inhibits its continued growth and world leadership
