We Can Do Better Than the Framers’ Constitution – Law & Liberty

Asprovocative as this is, Vermeule nevertheless pulls his punches. Rather thanarguing that conservatives should reject originalism, he might have argued thatthey must do so if they wish to advance a morally compelling argument. Fororiginalism, after all, is simply another form of legal positivism, thedoctrine that places a Chinese Wall between what is and whatought to be the law.Originalists are the children of John Austin (1790-1859), the English legalphilosopher who defined the law as the sovereign s command backed by force. Asa utilitarian, Austin thought that laws might serve the principle of utility ornot, that is, they might be good or bad, but in either case they re still lawsif enacted by the King-in-Parliament.

via lawliberty.org

We could do better than the Framers’ Constitution, but the question is, would we? The odds of that, I fear, are vanishingly small.