constitutional immunities is not constant, but varies from age to age. “The needs of successive generations may make restrictions imperative today, which were vain and capricious to the vision of times past."[1] "We must never forget," in Marshall's mighty phrase, "that it is a constitution we are expounding."[2]Statutes are designed to meet the fugitive exigencies of the hour. Amendment is easy as the exigencies change. In such cases, the meaning, once construed, tends legitimately to stereotype itself in the form first cast, A constitution states or ought to state not rules for the passing hour, but principles for an expanding future. In so far as it deviates from that standard, and descends into details and particulars, it loses its flexibility, the scope of interpretation contracts, the meaning
- ↑ Klein v. Maravelas, 219 N. Y. 383, 386.
- ↑ Cf. Frankfurter, supra; McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat, 407.
