View source for We understand the Constitution, they do not.

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[[Category:Libertarian Self-Delusions]]
[[Category:Constitutional Rights and Civil Liberties]]
[[Category:Law]]
{{DES | des = This libertarian attitude shows a profound ignorance of how the law ascribes meaning to documents such as the Constitution.   | show=}}
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First and foremost, the current meaning must take into account all subsequent legislation and court rulings.  If I declared the elections of southern representatives to be invalid because they were apportioned too many seats (their black constituents should have been counted as 3/5 according to the Constitution), I would be laughed at because of my ignorance of the 14th amendment.  Likewise if I ignore later judicial interpretations.  

Second, there must be one shared meaning, which requires social construction.  If a libertarian swears that he is reading the meaning "literally", so may anybody else: you still require a social judgement of what the "literal" reading is.  If you get as far as deciding that a "literal" reading is the appropriate way to understand the document.  

Third, general statements such as those in the Constitution have problems with precision and conflict with other statements in the same Constitution.  Those problems have no clear, inerrant solution: they must be resolved by some interpretive authority.  The US Supreme Court has arrogated that responsibility in Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803). 
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