The Constitution in Exile

And guess which party put it there? I'll give you a hint: it starts with "Democra":

The original order of importance of the branches is reflected in the order of the Constitution's articles, historian Ron Chernow recently observed. Article I addresses the legislative branch, Article 2 the executive, and Article 3 the judiciary. In this case, last was supposed to mean least. Yet today in ways the founding fathers could not have imagined the weakest branch has become the dominant branch on which the country's direction swings.

The circus-like atmospherics and hysteria surrounding the upcoming confirmation fight underscores the extent to which Supreme Court justices now largely rule America. Recognizing this fact, the country is acting as if a Constitutional Convention is coming up, and in a de facto sense one is. The confirmation hearings will in effect determine the new signatory to the ongoing Constitutional Convention that the Supreme Court has become.

As clear in this week's rhetoric -- Democrats like Ted Kennedy, in their demands for the next candidate, don't even mention fidelity to the Constitution but to "constitutional values" -- the search is not for a modest judge who will follow the supreme law of the land but for an ambitious signatory who will write a new one. From ruling to ruling the new justice will be expected to write up the form of government under which over 280 million people will live.

The problem with the Left is that they view the Constitution as a strawman to be deviated from as progressives see fit. The problem with conservatives is they are too loath to go around poisonous precedent and refer back to the original document and intent of same exclusively---which is why Scalia advocates a "textualist" approach which the MSM pretends not to understand but which simply translates to "read the bloody document."