9: How Were Our Laws MEANT To Be Interpreted?

When the rules that formed our nation were set in place, one must wonder, what was the true intent of these laws? Would the people who made them agree or disagree with the way we interpret them now? Take this example of a fictional privacy law (most likely an amendment to the constitution):



A person always has the right to privacy. To receive certain services, they should never be required to disclose their personal information. Legal matters would be an exception. In that case, a person must disclose their personal information, and their premises are subject to be searched, if the searching party has obtained a proper warrant.

Assuming this was an actual amendment to the constitution, and that it was applied to modern day life, how would it be interpreted? The first key words subject to interpretation are "personal information." What defines personal information? Modern judges could interpret that as a social security number, an I.D., or even a last or first name. Also, "services" is an important word to look at. What exactly is to be considered a service? And what happens to all the categories outside of that one? "Legal matters" is possibly the largest loose end. What qualifies as a legal matter? Would this mean that if a person rear ends someone else on the road, the affected party would be entitled to have the opposite party's premises searched? Or would it mean that a man being suspected of stabbing another man does not fall into this category, and he would not be required to tell the police anything?

All these loose ends in this fictional amendment are exaggerated - all the laws our country was founded on and certainly modern laws are a lot more specific. However, parts of them are still subject to interpretation. All it takes is for one judge to interpret a law a certain way, and then future judges would simply use that case as a reference. This is why modern laws are as long as they are - but alas, there is no way to truly tell at what point the events of the world will fall outside of the law's specifics.