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Justice Scalia Decries ‘Living Constitution’ in Visit to Valpo

moot court competition

From left: the Hon. Daniel A. Manion, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia; and the Hon. Rebecca R. Pallmeyer ’76, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois preside at the Valparaiso University School of Law’s moot court competition last fall.

In a visit to Valparaiso University last fall, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia presided at the law school’s 19th annual Luther M. Swygert Memorial Moot Court Competition and later shared his views on constitutional interpretation.

Scalia joined the Hon. Rebecca R. Pallmeyer ’76, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and the Hon. Daniel A. Manion, Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, to judge the final round of the moot court, in which Valpo law students address a current constitutional issue.

He also presented a public lecture to a crowded Chapel of the Resurrection, defending his approach to constitutional interpretation, known as originalism, and rebutting proponents of an evolving, ‘living Constitution.’
Originalists believe interpretation of the Constitution should be based on the text, not changing social attitudes. Many more judges in the United States and overseas advocate constitutions as living documents, open to contemporary interpretation to address modern concerns.

Scalia maintains that Supreme Court justices overstep their authority and expertise when they try to answer divisive moral questions such as abortion in legal cases. Moral issues should be resolved by elected political leaders and the legislature, not unelected judges,
he says.

Appointed to the nation’s highest court in 1986, Scalia is the second longest serving associate justice. He previously has taught Valpo law students in a sum­mer study program in England, as have fellow Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas and former Chief Justice William Rehnquist ’95 LL.D.

Valparaiso University, Institutional Advancement, Office of Communications