Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshJ  So-called strict constructionists complain about court decisions that grant, for instance, a right to privacy because it's not in the constitution.
Bork, for instance, argued that the right to privacy “does not have any rooting in the Constitution” and “comes out of nowhere.”
Clarence Thomas: "...just like Justice Stewart, I can find neither in the Bill of Rights nor any part of the Constitution a general right of privacy, or as the Court terms it today, the liberty of the person both in its spatial and more transcendent dimensions."
Stewart: "I could find no general right of privacy in the Bill of Rights, in any other part of the Constitution, or in any case ever before decided by this Court." (1965) |
I would contend that anybody can be labeled as a "strict constructionist" and then say anything. These quotes are opinions, likely taken out of context.
There is also a qualitative difference between an implied right (such as privacy) and an enumerated right (such as freedom of the Press) in the context of legal opinion. This may be the genesis of these quotes, but I don't know, since the context is missing.