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September 23, 2011

Antonin Scalia defends the Constitution as a "legal text"

Antonin ScaliaAntonia Scalia keynoted on Tuesday an event at the American Enterprise Institute, Walter Berns and the Constitution: A Celebration of the Constitution.  He denounced the doctrine, prevalent since the Warren Court, that the U.S. Constitution is merely a "collection of aspirations."  He then offered a spirited defense of the common-sense approach that the Constitution is a "legal text."

Justice Scalia went on to make an excellent point.  If the Constitution is not a legal text, why then are judges the ones to interpet it?  Judges, after all, trained to interpret legal texts, have no claim to greater wisdom than anyone else to opine on soceital aspirations.  He noted that in countries with constitutions that are not legal texts, the final arbiters of constitutionality are the legislatures, not the courts.

Book coverMichael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country.  Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision.  He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar.  His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics.

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I am offering the solution to a problem most Republicans don't know they have -- that they can be outmaneuvered and thrown on the defensive endlessly, on nearly any issue, because they accept as true Democrat lies about the Republican Party. To correct that misperception and to help the Republican Party get 'back to basics' is why I'm a man on a mission.

A few years ago, after one of my speeches, a man told me "Do you know what your problem is? You're too far ahead of your time!" My efforts to show Republicans how they would benefit from celebrating the heritage of our Grand Old Party have been arduous, but if this were easy someone else would have already done it.

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    Michael Zak is a popular speaker to conservative organizations around the nation -- thirty states so far. His message is that Republicans would benefit tremendously from appreciating the heritage of our Grand Old Party.

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