The following is a fictional story about the colors of traffic lights and how unelected judges change the meaning of a law over time.
Many years ago, when cars were starting to show up on city
streets, traffic lights were installed in every village. Some villages
designated that a green light meant a car could proceed or go, and a red light
meant that a car must stop and wait until the light turned green before it
could proceed. Other villages designated that red meant “GO” and green meant
“STOP”. It was so confusing for travelers.
While there was a general recognition that there should be a
standard traffic light for all the country and many villages had changed their
traffic lights to be consistent with what was becoming the standard, a few
villages refused to change. Representatives in the legislature passed a law
mandating that red meant stop and green meant go. The people overwhelmingly
agreed that the new law was a good thing. The wording of the law was simple and
clear. It said, “Red will mean stop and green will mean go for all traffic
lights in every village.”
For many years there was not a problem as every village
complied with red meant stop and green meant go. One village decided that it
was going to use red-violet to mean stop and blue-green to mean go. A traveler
to this village was confused. He challenged the color change in court. The
court heard his case but the judge ruled that red-violet was still red and
blue-green was still green. A few years later, another village decided to use
violet for stop and blue for go. When that change went to the courts, a judge
ruled that violet is close enough to red-violet and blue is close enough to
blue-green and, therefore, it is permissible. “After all,” said the judge,
“since red-violet has been ruled to be acceptable, it only makes sense that
violet is acceptable since red-violet has violet in the name and that has been ruled on already. And likewise, for
blue-green. And besides, there was precedent.”
The judge was praised for being progressive and not being
constrained by the historical meaning of the words, after all, words change
over time and the law is a living document. Some originalist judges – those who interpreted
the words of the law to mean what they originally meant - argued that red meant
red and green meant green.
A few years go by, a village decided to make
blue-violet mean stop and blue-violet mean go. It was so very confusing. A judge
ordered that the village change blue to mean stop and violet to mean go. As a progressive judge, he viewed his likes and dislikes as always being consistent with society's likes and dislikes. It
became the law of the land. Until, one village decided to make red-violet mean
go and blue-green to mean stop. Once again, a judge said it was allowable
because violet is essentially the same as red-violet and blue is essentially
the same as blue-green. And besides, there was precedent for this and he started shouting some Latin word "stare decisis" as if it was some magical chant.
One hundred years after the enactment of the traffic light
law, a village changed its traffic lights so that red meant go and green meant
stop. Again, a judge ruled - based on
precedent - that this was allowed. And
furthermore, in keeping with the original intent of the law, all traffic lights
throughout the land must be consistent. And that is how red became to mean go
and green became to mean stop.
