Address:
J. Clifford Wallace, A Two Hundred Year Old Constitution in Modern Society, 61 TEXAS L. REV. 1575 (1983).
 

Abstract:
Judge Wallace, of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, delivered a version of this address as the Vinson & Elkins Lecture at The University of Texas School of Law on April 6, 1983. Judge Wallace notes that the extent to which the Constitution provides an unchanging set of legal norms determines whether or not updating the Constitution is required to meet modern legal needs. The difficulty in determining whether or no these legal norms exist in the Constitution arises from the various approaches courts use to analyze constitutional problems. Judge Wallace concludes that the Constitution, as written, is appropriate for the legal challenges of modern society. He encourages courts to reject judicial activism and return to a language-based analysis of constitutional cases.