Scalia: Constitution Is 'Dead, Dead, Dead'

Supreme Court Justice Goes Off On History
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 02: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits to be introduced to speak at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) October 2, 2012 in Washington, DC. The American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society held a book discussion with Justice Scalia, who co-authored the book 'Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.' (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 02: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia waits to be introduced to speak at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) October 2, 2012 in Washington, DC. The American Enterprise Institute and the Federalist Society held a book discussion with Justice Scalia, who co-authored the book 'Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts.' (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is still frustrated that Americans don't understand how to read the supreme law of the land.

Appearing Monday evening at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, Scalia dismissed the modern vision of the U.S. Constitution as a living document.

“It’s not a living document," he said, according to the Dallas Morning News. "It’s dead, dead, dead."

This is not the first instance of Scalia expressing thoughts of this nature. Back in December, he appeared at Princeton University in New Jersey, echoing similar views about the "living" nature of the document.

"The fairest reading of the text is what the law means," he said during that appearance.

Back in February 2009, however, Scalia spoke at a Stanford University Hoover Institution talk, calling the document a "morphing" piece of writing. In turn, the Supreme Court guides that evolution.

"The Constitution changes from decade to decade to comport with -- and this is a phrase we use in our Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, we the court does -- to comport with 'the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.'"

WATCH Scalia's 2009 Hoover Institution talk:

This post has been updated to clarify the meaning of Justice Scalia's comments.

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