Are contracts living documents? Can you change the interest rate on your mortgage or other provisions as the your financial situation changes? In order to do so you need to renegociate with the lender. The Founding Fathers knew that the people would have to have a method of making changes in the the Constitution from time to time. For the government to change the meaning of the Constitution would be like having an attorney that is working for the lender to aribitrarily change the terms of your mortgage conract without your consent. They provided for these changes to be made using the Amendment process. To say that the Constitution is a living document provides the would be usurpers of power to change it simply by interpreting it differently. The Constitution is based upon the Declaration of Independence and the eternal truth contained in it. The principles of the unalienable rights  have always been true and will be. To circumvent the amendment process and make changes by interpretation rather than by Constitutional Amendment is how our government officials have tricked and swindled the American people. The Constitution and the paper it is written on is dead but the principles upon which it was written will never die as long there are men and women that yearn to be free.