Whose Constitution Is It?

Thomas Sowell - September 14, 2005 - TownHall.com

With all the confusing controversies about judges and how they interpret the Constitution of the United States, we need to go back to square one and ask: Why do we pay attention to the Constitution in the first place?

There has been much hand-wringing about how or whether we can tell what the "original intent" was among those who wrote the Constitution. But the moral and legal bases for the authority of the Constitution do not rest with those who wrote it. The moral and legal authority of the Constitution comes from those who ratified it -- "we the people" -- not those who wrote it.

The justification for much that is being written, expressing frustration and anger with our courts, has never been more clearly and succinctly stated than the above. Since I started thinking about the flaws of our courts a decade ago, and especially since I started this blog earlier this year, I have been trying to explain the growing rage to many friends. I have never felt that I have hit the heart of it.

This is the heart of it. There is a need to return to the "original intent" of what I have poorly described as America's "social contract". This "original intent" of the people who "ratified it" is the basis for our "rule of law". That is our Constitution (and Bill of Rights). "We the people" know what our Constitution means. We don't need a bunch of power obsessed judges to tell us.

This is an important article. Thank you Thomas Sowell.