To the editor:
The best refutation of the myth of “originalism” being espoused by Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch was explained by the late Justice William Brennan. He pointed out that trying to “find legitimacy in fidelity” to the intentions of the framers of the U.S. Constitution was “little more than arrogance cloaked as humility.” (“Is the Scalia theory embraced by Judge Gorsuch a lofty constitutional doctrine or just an excuse to be conservative?” March 17)
“It is arrogant,” Brennan said, “to pretend that from our vantage we can gauge accurately the intent of the framers on application of principle to specific, contemporary questions.” For him, the Constitution had no “static meaning it might have had in a world that is dead and gone, but in the adaptability of its great principles to cope with current problems and current needs.”
To defend and protect the Constitution, we need justices on the court today like Brennan and Stephen G. Breyer, who believes “the court should regard the Constitution as containing unwavering values that must be applied flexibly to ever-changing circumstances.”
Stephen F. Rohde, Los Angeles
