What is the Between Loose Interpretation of the constitution and Strict Interpretation of the Constitution?

Answer 1

It perhaps has been said that between loose interpretation and strict interpretation of the Constitution there is the practical matter of applying the Constitution to the business of government. The Constitution of the United States of America is the Supreme Law of that land and guides that nation in their pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. In order to form a more perfect union the people, through the Constitution, granted limited and temporary power to certain government officials so that they might establish justice, provide for the common defense, ensure domestic tranquility and promote the general welfare. But what does it mean to promote the general welfare? How should our elected officials ensure domestic tranquility? How much power should the people grant military leaders in order to provide for a common defense? Exactly how does a government establish justice? These are the goals the people, through constitutional mandate have given their elected officials. How those government officials accomplish or attempt to accomplish those goals depends largely on how they interpret the Constitution.

There are those who take a liberal view of the Constitution and others who take a conservative view of the same document and then there is everybody in between. A Liberal will take a loose interpretation of the Constitution as his strategy for accomplishing the necessary goals while a Conservative will adhere strictly to the text to guide them in what must be done. Those in between are not really using the Constitution as their guide. One can not be conservative on some issues and liberal on others without running into logical fallacies. This sort of political declaration only confuses the meaning of liberal and conservative. In the American political landscape if it is not the Constitution that is being conserved then exactly what is being conserved? It is not necessary for a liberal to know they are taking a liberal view of the Constitution in order to be a Liberal, but a Conservative must know that it is the original intent of the Constitution that they are conserving or they become nothing more than just another progressive movement and before you know it the main stream media starts inventing terms like "neo-conservative" and "moderate conservative" or "far right conservative" or even more confusing "left leaning conservative." They all just seem to be descriptions of people in between.

There is no better way to illustrate the difference between a liberal and conservative view of the Constitution than by using the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights as an example. The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

A liberal or loose interpretation will place its focus on what is meant by "well regulated militia" and a conservative or strict interpretation will place its focus on "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Of the many arguments made about the Second Amendment the serious ones come down to an interpretation that means that the people have a right to bear arms if they belong to a well regulated militia or an interpretation that means that in order for the people to keep and maintain well regulated militias the people must have the right to keep and bear their own arms. The difference between these two interpretations are radical and extreme.

The Conservative, being fundamentally bound by the text which they hope to conserve must concede that "a well regulated militia" certainly can imply some sort of government regulation and such an interpretation should not be construed as a loose interpretation of the text. The conservative will also point out that the text does not imply that the people have a right to keep and bear arms but unequivocally states it and expressly forbids the government from infringing that right. A Liberal will counter that in order for a government to effectively regulate militias they must be able to regulate the right of the people to keep and bear arms. The conservative will claim that this is an infringement upon that right. The Liberal will counter that it is not the right itself that is being regulated but the exercise of that right that is being regulated and then the Conservative will challenge the Liberal to show where in the Constitution that the power to regulate the exercise of freedom was granted to government officials and the debate will continue going back and forth, round and round leaving everyone in between bored and agitated while gradual apathy creeps into their politics and so it remains that it is Liberals and Conservatives who stay the course while everyone in between follows.