Intent of the Founders: How Much Does It Matter?

Nearly always, when getting into a discussion about the constitution, someone will always say,"Well, how about the founders' intent?!"

While, it's a valid question, one needs to bear in mind that currently, "Founders' Intent" tends to be a pretty small part of the rulings these days.

Now, I can already hear it:"YOU CAN'T IGNORE THE FOUNDERS!"

This is true.  But, the founders' intent has been pretty much written into precedent already, so by and large, decisions are based on precedent, based on intent.

But, what I love, is when someone quotes to me from one of the founders in opposition to a current practice.  Protip:  No single founder wrote the constitution.  It was collaborative.  Many people's opinion went into it, and you can't assume one founder is the end-all, be-all of it.

And, for this reason, we have a Supreme Court to figure that out.  It's one of the branches of government for a reason.  And, we had a pretty good guy named John Marshall who laid the groundwork for our constitutional law.

If you have a question about a constitutional principle, you need to first look at what Justice Marshall ruled.  He knew, and rubbed elbow with, the founding fathers.  He knew exactly what they meant.

But, we can't stop with Marshall, or the founders. The constitution has changed 17 times since they wrote it.  It's a very different document now.  Which is also why they gave us the SCOTUS to interpret it's meaning for us.

Anyone who argues that the document is merely a "plain English document" is lying to themselves.  There's numerous ambiguities that were purposefully left, in order to allow the current generation to interpret it's meaning with the times.  It's open to be changed by amendment.  The amendments all interplay with each other in complex ways.  And, the reasoning for life-long terms was two-fold:  To protect them from political whims, and because interpretation requires a lifetime of legal experience to do.

So, while the founders' opinion is somewhat important, it's not nearly as much as many would make it out to be.