Antonin Scalia's Scalia Speaks [...]
Antonin Scalia's Scalia Speaks [...]The American republic is a democracy. And the background rule of democracy is that the majority rules. We discuss matters, try to persuade one another, and then put it to a vote—directly, or through our representatives. And the majority rules. But in a liberal democracy (which we are) the majority does not always rule. It does not rule with regard to the freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, or the right to bear arms, or the right to trial by jury, and so forth—the provisions of the Bill of Rights. But who adopted those limitations on democracy? The people themselves, notsome committee of judges. And it is only the people themselves who can add to or subtract from those limitations, through the amendment provision of the Constitution. If you believe in democracy, you are an originalist, because it is only the limitations that the people voted for—which means the limitations that the people understood they were imposing—that can frustrate the will of the people […] When I was a child, Americans used to say, to express their deep frustration about a certain state of affairs: “There oughta be a law.” In fact there was a comic strip with that title. Well, I haven’t heard that expression in years. It has been replaced with a phrase that now comes readily to the lips of every American: “It’s unconstitutional.”