The two ways of reading the Constitution are not reconcilable.

The second view of what happened during the court’s last term is that the shift was not about honest constitutional debate, but instead about partisan politics. In this view, the justices are politicians in robes who pursue the policy goals of their party. This means that when the Republican appointees gained the majority in the court, GOP preferences followed.

Partisans know which school of thought is more likely to give them the outcomes they want.

Over the last few decades, partisanship has become a stronger force in shaping the nomination process. President Richard Nixon, for example, was a Republican who nominated Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who went on to write the liberal majority opinion for Roe v. Wade in 1973.

But today, justices nominated by Republican or Democratic presidents are chosen with much more care, with the aid of outside groups like the conservative Federalist Society.

The partisan view encourages people to see constitutional questions as they often view politics – simply ways of dodging principles while pushing ideological agendas. It characterizes the justices as pawns and constitutional debates as smokescreens.

That perception may actually be accurate about some of the justices, some of the time. But it is also surely not true about most of the justices, most of the time.

Perhaps the worst result of the partisan view is that interpreting the Constitution becomes about merely group identity, with Democrats and Republicans cynically stuck in permanent camps. This makes crucial public deliberations about the constitutional foundations of a free society nearly impossible.

The focus on constitutional theory argues that when debate is not about principle, it ought to be, while the partisan view argues that even when it seems to be, it is not.

Constitutional debate goes back and forth as the control of the court shifts. Over time, it will likely shift again, while the partisan view in the long term degrades the legitimacy of a correct, as well as incorrect, court.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Morgan Marietta, UMass Lowell. Like this article? subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

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Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.