NCJ Number
121080
Journal
Trial Volume: 25 Issue: 12 Dated: (December 1989) Pages: 37-45
Date Published
1989
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This article draws upon the perceptions of contemporary physics to discuss the process of constitutional analysis.
Abstract
The dynamic quality of modern physics is contrasted with the static world view of Newtonian physics, and this general comparison is applied to constitutional analysis and decisionmaking. A Newtonian view of the legal system defines government as a thing or a physical entity that acts upon citizens' lives from a distance. Courts are thus passive and detached observers. When government is viewed from an understanding of general relativity and quantum theory, however, government action has a dynamic of and in itself that changes the social landscape through its interaction with it. Human interactions are redirected as a result of governmental action; pervasive interaction occurs between the observer and the phenomena observed. The traditional judicial doctrine of stare decisis reflects a judicial awareness of the principle that as judges define the legal landscape they also alter it. The way in which the Supreme Court determined the course of the legal landscape and responded to governmental action in De Shaney v. Winnebago County is discussed in detail.