- Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass, Ch. VI (1871)
. . .

I have the greatest respect for Justice Antonin Scalia; however I must respectfully disagree with his premise that the Constitution “is dead.” To the contrary, I think that it was the “original intent” of the framers of the Constitution that it be a living document as attested by the twenty-seven amendments since its adoption; which reflects their wisdom and foresight in providing for such change. Likewise, the fact that people may disagree with the court’s interpretation of some of its provisions is not a sufficient basis for adopting a regressive approach to the law. As Alice pointed out, “[T]he question is . . .whether you can make words mean so many different things”; and to say that the Constitution means what the founding fathers intended it to mean is, like Humpty Dumpty, merely to beg the question.

Professor Tribe once told me that the Constitution doesn’t mean what it says. I thought he was joking at the time; but after the decision of the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore, I have come to think that he meant it.