We can go to Washington DC and observe Congress and see whether it does meet in two houses, and whether people do reliably call those houses the Senate and the House of Representatives. If we see that’s actually what happens, then in what sense is the Constitutional provision not truth-apt? By learning what that provision says, we gain a correct prediction of what those people in DC actually do.
Occasionally, a law does become non-predictive. One example of this is selective enforcement, for instance the (real or purported) phenomenon of driving while black. The law says that anyone breaking the traffic laws gets a penalty. If the actual practice were that black drivers get penalties and white drivers don’t, then the law would not predict the practice. This is why the courts have the ability to rule that a law may be constitutional as written but unconstitutional as applied.
We can go to Washington DC and observe Congress and see whether it does meet in two houses, and whether people do reliably call those houses the Senate and the House of Representatives. If we see that’s actually what happens, then in what sense is the Constitutional provision not truth-apt? By learning what that provision says, we gain a correct prediction of what those people in DC actually do.
Occasionally, a law does become non-predictive. One example of this is selective enforcement, for instance the (real or purported) phenomenon of driving while black. The law says that anyone breaking the traffic laws gets a penalty. If the actual practice were that black drivers get penalties and white drivers don’t, then the law would not predict the practice. This is why the courts have the ability to rule that a law may be constitutional as written but unconstitutional as applied.