Any other standard suffers the defect of pouring new meaning into old words, thus creating new powers and new rights totally at odds with the logic of our Constitution and its commitment to the rule of law. William Weld, who resigned as chief of Meeses criminal division, reportedly felt an indictment should be sought against Meese. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan responded a few months after Meeses speech with one of his own at Georgetown University. “We current justices read the Constitution in the only way we can: as 20th-century Americans,” Brennan declared.Įlaborating on his theme, Meese told the ABA that many of the court's recent rulings seemed to be “more policy choices than articulations of constitutional principle…reveal a greater allegiance to what the court thinks constitutes sound public policy than a deference to what the Constitution-its text and intention-may demand.” It is the Reagan administration's belief, he continued, “that only ‘the sense in which the Constitution was accepted and ratified by the nation,’ and only the sense in which laws were drafted and passed provide a solid foundation for adjudication. In October, Brennan, the senior sitting justice, responded, defending the modern court's approach of interpreting the Constitution in light of contemporary realities. Three decades ago, then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III initiated a spirited national debate about the proper application of our most important governing documentthe U.S. Describing the decisions of the just-ended court term as a “jurisprudence of idiosyncrasy,” Meese urged the court to adopt one of “original intention.” Why was President Reagan so successful I would suggest that one reason is: He did what the Constitution said he should do, and he did what the Founders had in mind in terms of a constitutional. Meese led off last July 9, using an address to the American Bar Association (ABA) to tell the Supreme Court that it was on the wrong constitutional track. took opposing sides in the long-running debate over the proper way to apply the Constitution to modern issues. Shift in Direction Opposing Views on Applying ConstitutionĪmericans sat-up and took notice last fall when Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Associate Justice William J.
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