Many liberals want President Barack Obama to name a Supreme Court justice who can define a vision for the law in the 21st century, much as Justice Antonin Scalia has done for the right since he joined the court in 1986.
Until now, no manifesto has set forth what that vision might be. But in two new books, scholars with ties to the Obama administration suggest how they would move from defending liberal precedents of the mid-20th century to advancing new constitutional approaches.
"For far too long, liberals have been kind of apologetic and on the defensive, and we oughtn't to be," says Pamela Karlan, a Stanford law professor who worked on both books and is sometimes mentioned as a potential Supreme Court nominee.
The books argue that rather than simply being a fixed legal code, the Constitution also represents ideals that each generation has a duty to apply in its own era. Some constitutional phrases allow little argument -- that senators be at least 30 years old -- but others, they say, invite continual evolution, such as "due process."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124328690467052025.html
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