Constitution+DayJP08

Radio Show McCain or Obama Letter To Obama 19th Century Compared to 21st Century OSV Prodject Oregon Trail American System Trail of Tears Immigration Immigration Speech Civil War Science project While attempting to become the Republican candidate for President in 2008, Fred Thompson said, "//I do not believe the Constitution is a **living, breathing document**. I am committed to appointing strict constructionist judges to the bench if I am elected President, strict constructionists who believe the Constitution has a fixed meaning that can be applied to cases that come before the courts today. They do NOT believe the Constitution is a living, breathing document, whose meaning, constantly changing with the sifting sands of our culture, can be determined and applied by unelected judges."//

Al Gore made the following statement while running for President in 2000: //"I would look for justices of the Supreme Court who understand that our Constitution is a **living and breathing document**, that it was intended by our founders to be interpreted in the light of the constantly evolving experience of the American people.//"

Who was right?

Prove that the Constitution should be a "living and breathing" document or Prove that the Constitution should not be a "living and breathing" document

Your answer and evidence is due on Friday. It will be a phone call to one of the signers explaining to them how the Constitution should be interpreted today. It will be between :55sec and 1:05 minutes long. You can work in a group or by yourself.

Hello Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton. My name is Jonathan. I would like to talk about the Constitution. I would like to talk about how I agree with Al Gore's statement about it and not Fred Thompson's; how it is a living, breathing document. The constitution is a document written by our founding fathers. It states the laws and rights that they wanted us to have. It is a living, breathing document, because society has changed since the 1700's. We should still follow what it says, just in a different way. People now should interrpret it differently than they did then. We shouldn't change the constitution, we should just look at it differently. One example of proof that it is living and breathing is the right to bare arms. People back then felt the need to have a gun because they had to protect themselves. Now, people don't feel the need to have one because we have policemen and a military. In feedom of expression, people used to express their opinions. Now, people express themselves by walking down the street swearing. In freedom of the press, people used to always write about things that were true. Now, people post bad things just because thay believe they have the right to. It is also living and breathing because amendments can be added to it. As you can see, the Constitution is clearly living and breathing.