The framers recognized that including a modicum of ambiguity in the Constitution would provide each branch the latitude to compete for broader jurisdiction and powers, as none of the branches would be strictly limited by inflexible boundaries. Such latitude achieves Madison 's ideal of a government that pits ambition against ambition by providing each branch with both different avenues of operation and different incentives as well as the means necessary to effectuate their separate interests. The imposition of strict limits such as the ones Justice Scalia desires would obviate each branch 's ability to check the others by limiting the constitutionally supportable means by which they could compete for, and by extension check, certain powers. It is the indeterminateness of the Constitution combined with human self-interest that creates a functional horizontal separation of powers, for as Madison himself questioned, "what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?viii". Bright
The framers recognized that including a modicum of ambiguity in the Constitution would provide each branch the latitude to compete for broader jurisdiction and powers, as none of the branches would be strictly limited by inflexible boundaries. Such latitude achieves Madison 's ideal of a government that pits ambition against ambition by providing each branch with both different avenues of operation and different incentives as well as the means necessary to effectuate their separate interests. The imposition of strict limits such as the ones Justice Scalia desires would obviate each branch 's ability to check the others by limiting the constitutionally supportable means by which they could compete for, and by extension check, certain powers. It is the indeterminateness of the Constitution combined with human self-interest that creates a functional horizontal separation of powers, for as Madison himself questioned, "what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?viii". Bright