Rehnquist, true to words, was true to our freedom

Patrick McIlheran in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

[Justice Antonin] Scalia was speaking to a Milwaukee seminar of the Federalist Society, a group now controversial mainly for believing that a constitutional "no" doesn't mean, "oh, all right." Speaker and crowd both presumed the virtue of originalism.

For those to whom it must be proved, the case is easy: If we are to live by laws, it's better that the laws be written so we know what they are. It's better that they change slowly and by democracy, so to be surer of the changes' virtue and legitimacy, rather than frequently and by the evolving personal standards of a judge who "grows" on the bench.

Rehnquist did not "grow" on the bench in the usual sense of "turned liberal."

Rather, said several former Rehnquist clerks at the Federalists' seminar, his principles were in place by the time he got to the Supreme Court and were not remodeled by power ...