The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Your View

August 1, 2012

My View: Constitution should mean what it says

By Bob Jentges

— Just over a week ago in a Your View (Constitutional scholars don’t become mired in irrelevancy) contradicting what I had written about a recent Supreme Court decision, the writer declared: “The Supreme Court frequently makes constitutional rulings in contexts other than those issues argued before it and they are not limited by the arguments used by the attorneys in front of it.”

He may be correct, but in my opinion that is not the proper way cases should be judged. I did not respond at the time, but saved the letter as a reminder of the very different ideas people have about the reason the Supreme Court exists, i.e. to interpret written laws and the Constitution.

I recently watched Chris Wallace interview Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during which they discussed Scalia’s recent book: “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.” That evening I watched Brian Lamb’s CSPAN Q&A on the same topic. I found the interviews so compelling I read the transcripts. I may purchase and read the book.

Contrary to what that Your View writer contended, I never presumed to be a “constitutional scholar.” But I think most reasonable people would agree Justice Scalia fits that definition. The way I see it the logical reasoning he uses to reach a conclusion is what gives people confidence in the conclusion, whether they like the conclusion or not.  

Many of the things I took from listening to and reading Scalia’s comments I found follow the principles I used during my 32-plus years of investigating and analyzing coverage under insurance policy contracts. What follows are a few quotes of what Scalia had to say:

“Origionalism is a sort of subspecies of textualism. Textualism means you are governed by the text. That’s the only thing that is relevant, not whether the outcome is desirable, not whether the legislative history says this or says that. But the text of the statute. Origionalism says that when you consult the text you give it the meaning it had when it was adopted, not some later modern meaning. ... The text is the sole source that the judge ought to be using when making his judgment. ... The letter of the law is the letter of the law. ... In order to save the constitutionality, you can not give the text a meaning it will not bear.

“... It is said in some Supreme Court opinions that ... sometimes the letter of the law is contrary to its spirit, and its spirit ... must prevail. That’s nonsense. We are not governed by some judicial determination of spirit which could be anything. ... that’s just not democratic self-government if people can not have their representatives write a statute, which is applied as written.”

The way I see it if the people do not agree with the Constitution as written, amend it, and if the people do not agree with how a statute is written, change it through the legislative process.

In concluding, I suggest my career in insurance would have been very short if I had taken the position with policyholders that although their policy, as written, covered their loss, since the company did not intend it be covered we will deny their claim — or vice versa!

 

Bob Jentges is a former teacher, coach and insurance claims superintendent and is part a team of Free Press readers invited to comment more frequently on issues of the day. He considers himself a conservative.

 

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