were "cruel and unusual" when they wrote the eighth amendment. If the framers
themselves allowed executions, then the doctrine of original intent would say that
executions are constitutional. As another example, if the framers of the First
Amendment intended for freedom of speech to include sexually explicit
publications, then pornography is constitutionally protect; if not, a legislature is free
to outlaw it. Original intent is essentially a conservative doctrine, since it attempts
to conserve or retain the attitudes, perspectives and judgments held by those who
wrote the Constitution.

Among the most notable defenders of the "original intent" Supreme Court Justice
William Rehnquist. He believes that the Constitution, and its design for
government, is the product of a social contract among the people, who are
sovereign:

"The people are the ultimate source of authority; they have parceled
out the authority that originally resided entirely with them by adopting
the original Constitution and by later amending it. In the Bill of Rights,
they have erected protection for specified individual rights against the

actions of the federal government."                                  ^ ^i (p

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