The Importance of Being Logical
I went to see the Star Trek movie this past weekend with my twelve-year-old son, Andrew. He was the one dressed in full Klingon regalia (true story). The star of the movie is undoubtedly everyone’s favorite Vulcan, Mr. Spock. As you will recall, Spock is the character who always insists on behaving logically. Seeing the movie made me reflect on legal education and the importance of being logical.
Teaching Constitutional Law, it is easy to get wrapped up in ideological conflicts and to overlook the key role that logical syllogisms play in the construction of Supreme Court opinions. Certainly the students do not immediately grasp the connection between formal logic and Supreme Court decision-making. They begin the semester with the assumption that the members of the Court merely vote their ideologies. As the students assimilate the various interpretive theories for reading the text, such as textualism or intentionalism, they flirt with the possibility of deriving the meaning of the Constitution in an objective manner. However, the inconsistent manner in which the members of the Court employ these interpretive methods soon frustrates a fair proportion of the class. Some students begin to drift towards the view that the decisions of the Court are merely bald assertions of political power, while others begin to flirt with nihilism and the belief that the entire interpretive enterprise is arbitrary.
My personal view is that the United States Constitution is a political document, constructed via compromise between various interest groups and left intentionally ambiguous in several key respects.