Peering into a 220 year old head

Antonin Scalia, the most conservative of the Supremes, gave a little speech a the UC Hastings College of Law. He defined what was meant by "originalism" -- the idea that guides him that says we must follow the original intent of the Constitution. He makes that a bit clearer. It doesn't matter what the actual words in the Constitution say. What does matter is what was going on in the heads of the guys writing it.

For example, the Constitution says, "…nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Obviously, that meant white Protestant landowners and certainly not women or gays. Therefore legal protections cannot be extended to women and gays. Strange that Scalia was part of the gang that decided Halliburton was in the minds of the founders and can spend freely on campaigns as a person.

This was apparently partly in response to Justice Stephen Breyer, who has written a book about how the Constitution cannot remain an 18th Century document. It must either evolve with the society or that society will see the court as irrelevant. Definitely not "originalism" thinking. This is apparently Breyer's second book.