Antonin Scalia v. Thomas Jefferson

[LyricalReckoner]

Thomas Jefferson wrote that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. Antonin Scalia doesn’t see it that way. In a speech in 2002, he reminded his audience what it says in the Bible: the government is ordained by God. During arguments in Van Orden v. Perry, Scalia said Jefferson was wrong. Our government doesn’t derive its authority from the consent of the governed. It “derives its authority from God.” And, he insisted, it’s a fact that “the foundation of our laws is God.”

Read all about it:

http://www.misterthorne.org/ESSAYS/s..._jefferson.htm

Enjoy!

[lpetrich]

I wonder if anyone has challenged Mr. Scalia to read the US Constitution. That document starts out with:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

By contrast, the composers of that document had led a successful war to free themselves from the authority of someone who called himself

George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc.

[LyricalReckoner]

Originally Posted by lpetrich

I wonder if anyone has challenged Mr. Scalia to read the US Constitution.

My guess is that his high school and college teachers must have quizzed him on it.

[LyricalReckoner]

Justice Scalia is perpetually talking about how it was 200 years ago, and how it should be that way still and for ever more.