CHEYENNE - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in Cheyenne to address the Wyoming State Bar, gave a public talk Friday morning in which he warned about troubling trends in constitutional interpretation.

In a sometimes forceful, sometimes flippant 40-minute speech, Scalia, 72, criticized the idea of a "living Constitution" that changes with the whims of each successive Court.

He argued instead that the Constitution is a set of "unchanging minimums" and that the job of the Court is to see that new laws adhere to those principals.

"The Constitution means today what it meant when it was adopted," Scalia told an audience of a couple hundred people, including members of the Wyoming Supreme Court, and some junior high school children.

Scalia also disputed the notion that the Court is divided between liberal and conservative justices, an idea that he said is reinforced by a news media focused on creating an atmosphere of conflict around the Court.

The true divide between the justices, he said, is a matter of how they view their jobs, either as interpreters of a living Constitution, or as protectors of what he called an "enduring Constitution."

For example, Scalia noted that some justices believe the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment should extend to the death penalty, because standards of decency have changed since the Bill of Rights was created.

But Scalia insisted that the job of changing the Constitution is up to the Congress, and not the nine justices of the Supreme Court.

"Why did they adopt the Bill of Rights if they thought future generations would be wiser and more virtuous than they were?" Scalia said. "The reason they adopted the Bill of Rights is they feared that future generations would not be as virtuous and wise as they were.

"It was not just an invitation for future generations to do whatever they wanted," Scalia added.

Scalia said his own criteria for deciding cases is based on an "originalist" theory of constitutional law, in which the original intent of the framers is considered in each case.

"What gives the Supreme Court the right to announce that the Constitution has changed?" Scalia said.

Scalia went on to predict that the Court's trend over the last 50 years toward the living Constitution theory will have disastrous results for the nation.

"Don't think the country has lasted two and a half centuries playing that game," Scalia said. "We won't last with this change."

Supporters of the theory of a living constitution generally believe that the progress of the society should be considered when interpreting key constitutional concepts.

Scalia also took a few questions from the audience, including one about his position on the practice of government taking land through eminent domain.

Scalia said his position on the subject was well illustrated in the 2005 case Kilo v. City of New London, in which the Court ruled against a private property owner whose land was taken to further economic development.

Scalia said the Court ruled in error in the case, and said he expects the decision eventually will be overturned.

"I think the court was astounded by the public reaction" to Kilo, Scalia said.

Cheyenne native and University of Colorado law student Jeffrey O'Holleran drove from Boulder to hear the talk, which he said presented a refreshing contrast to the views of many students and faculty at his school.

"I really appreciated his view, simply because it is a minority view in the legal system," O'Holleran said.

Grover Easterling, 14, a student at Cheyenne's McCormick Junior High School, said he learned a lot from the talk, and that he thinks Scalia is correct that the Court should not be creating laws.

"I think I like his idea that nine people who aren't elected shouldn't be the people who choose the laws," Easterling said.

Steve Sears, a Missouri resident who was visiting relatives in Cheyenne, said he was thrilled to catch Scalia's talk, and said he was happy to see that the justice seems like a "down to earth" person.

The mere fact that Scalia would take time for a public appearance in Cheyenne is proof of that, Sears said.

"We tend to hold these guys in such high esteem, it's nice to know they are real people," he added.

Scalia delivered the keynote address to the Wyoming State Bar at the group's annual banquet on Thursday.

Contact Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or {M7jared.miller@trib.com.