Development of Law

The legal system is not based upon the blind application of established rules to specific cases. Rather, the common law is a process of applying known rules to newly made claims through a reasoned elaboration of principle.

Trying to find a privacy article cited a few times in stuff related to my recent Griswold post, found this one with this good summary of applying current law to develop new. See text surrounding FN44. This is more sensible than 'originalist' appeals. Yes, this is inexact and the "law" changes over time. Real life can be messy; it's more true than fantasy though.