Original Intent of the Constitution

Original Intent of the Constitution

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 224 , Segment 5

Episode: Iowa Caucuses, Sundance Film Festival, Constitution, Volkswagen

  • Feb 2, 2016 11:00 pm
  • 36:00 mins

Guest: James Phillips, Clerk for Justice Tom Lee at the Utah State Supreme Court, Former Visiting Law Professor at BYU  The job of the US Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution in all kinds of current legal disputes. But the Constitution was ratified in 1789. So, the question that often comes up is, should we be trying to interpret the Constitution in just the way the founders intended it? Or should we be look it as a living document, with a meaning that evolves as modern life evolves?  If you adhere to the idea that original intent matters most, you get into the trouble of knowing just what the founding fathers meant when they wrote the word “commerce” or the phrase “to carry arms.” You might think it’d be as easy as turning to an English dictionary from 1788 and looking up the word “commerce” or “arms.” But you’d be wrong, says James Phillips, a former visiting professor at BYU’s Law School and now a clerk for the Utah State Supreme Court.

Other Segments

Iowa Caucuses

17 MINS

Guest: David Anderson, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University  Iowa Caucuses last night, Republican Ted Cruz bested Donald Trump and Marco Rubio came in at a much closer third place than polls anticipated. The rest of the large Republican field for president failed to get out of the single digit range for voters.  Meanwhile, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ended in a near tie with Clinton nabbing 49.9 percent of votes and Sanders 49.6 percent.  The question, of course, is now what? But before we turn our attention entirely to the New Hampshire primary next week, let’s see what we can learn if we move beyond the final vote tallies in Iowa last night.

Guest: David Anderson, PhD, Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University  Iowa Caucuses last night, Republican Ted Cruz bested Donald Trump and Marco Rubio came in at a much closer third place than polls anticipated. The rest of the large Republican field for president failed to get out of the single digit range for voters.  Meanwhile, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ended in a near tie with Clinton nabbing 49.9 percent of votes and Sanders 49.6 percent.  The question, of course, is now what? But before we turn our attention entirely to the New Hampshire primary next week, let’s see what we can learn if we move beyond the final vote tallies in Iowa last night.

Visual and Auditory Memory

18 MINS

Guest: David Somers, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University  You know when you’re driving down the road and you hear an ambulance siren, but you can’t for the life of you figure out which direction it’s coming from? Only when you get a glimpse of the flashing lights or see other cars down the road pulling over does it become clear where the ambulance is? Well, it turns out that’s because your brain is better at processing some things using sight and other things using sound. And that processing happens in different compartments in the brain.

Guest: David Somers, PhD, Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University  You know when you’re driving down the road and you hear an ambulance siren, but you can’t for the life of you figure out which direction it’s coming from? Only when you get a glimpse of the flashing lights or see other cars down the road pulling over does it become clear where the ambulance is? Well, it turns out that’s because your brain is better at processing some things using sight and other things using sound. And that processing happens in different compartments in the brain.

The Apple Seed(36:10)

15 MINS

Guest: Sam Payne, host of "The Apple Seed" on BYUradio Tellers and stories on BYUradio.

Guest: Sam Payne, host of "The Apple Seed" on BYUradio Tellers and stories on BYUradio.

Sundance Film Festival: Land of Mine

14 MINS

Guest: Chip Oscarson, PhD, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Scandinavian Studies and Coordinator for the International Cinema Studies Program at BYU  One of the more devastating tactics of ISIS is their recruitment of youth as foot soldiers. But, really, sending teenagers to war is nothing new. In 1945, at the end of World War II, 2,000 German POWs—many of them just in their teens—were forced to clear a million and half land mines buried in the Western beaches of Denmark. Half of these prisoners were killed or injured.  This event is dramatized in a brutal—and at the same time, tender—new film out of Denmark. It’s called Land of Mine and it made its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last week.

Guest: Chip Oscarson, PhD, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities and Scandinavian Studies and Coordinator for the International Cinema Studies Program at BYU  One of the more devastating tactics of ISIS is their recruitment of youth as foot soldiers. But, really, sending teenagers to war is nothing new. In 1945, at the end of World War II, 2,000 German POWs—many of them just in their teens—were forced to clear a million and half land mines buried in the Western beaches of Denmark. Half of these prisoners were killed or injured.  This event is dramatized in a brutal—and at the same time, tender—new film out of Denmark. It’s called Land of Mine and it made its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last week.
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