Is The Constitution A “Living Document”?

I asked this question in a poll, and this was one of the replies: ” Only if my Mortgage is a Living Document that changes with my economic circumstances.” 😀 His reply was so apropo, because the Constitution is a Contract between the Federal Government, and the State’s citizenry. 

On page 54 of Justice Joseph Story’s book, “A Familiar Exposition of The Constitution Of The United States”, he explains how each State, through a voting process, decided to accepted or rejected the union formed by the Constitution before joining.  So not only did the assembly vote yea or nay as to their acceptance of this Contract, but so did each State.  it is basically a Contract that says if you will agree to join the Union, we (the Federal Government) will agree to limit our powers to what is enumerated in the Constitution.  You see folks, the colonists had just fought a war risking everything to rid themselves of a government that had abused its powers. Most were not interested in submitting to another such government.

In the following two videos Justice Scalia and Justice Breyer debate this question:

Kevin Gutzman, Historian, says that those who would give us a “living” Constitution are actually giving us a dead Constitution, since such a thing is completely unable to protect us against the encroachments of government power.”

Tom Woods was asked is the Constitution a “Living Document”? See that discussion beginning at the 8 minute mark in the following video:

So it is not the Constitution that it is out of date.  It is the Federal Government that has broken contract…broken their promise to the citizenry of the United States.

The Heritage Foundation explains where the idea of the Constitution being a living document came from: The Progressive Movement And How It Transformed American Politics.