PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says judges who read new rights into the Constitution are "impoverishing democracy" by taking issues out of public debate.

"My Constitution is a very flexible document," he told an audience Friday night at a conference on James Madison at Princeton University. "You want a right to abortion? Pass a law. That's flexibility."

In his speech, Scalia outlined his judicial philosophy of interpreting the Constitution according to its text, as understood at the time it was adopted.

He said if judges interpret the Constitution that way, "a lot of questions are easy, and for the nontextualist, no questions are easy."

Those judges must decide each day questions such as the constitutionality of the death penalty, Scalia said, noting his belief that the document plainly spoke of capital cases.

During Scalia's speech, several dozen demonstrators chanted outside. They displayed signs saying, "You stole the election," referring to the Supreme Court's decision that ended the Florida recount and in effect handed the presidential election to George W. Bush.

Though the chanting could at times be faintly heard inside the lecture hall, Scalia did not mention the demonstrators or the election case.

"The Constitution means now what its text reasonably conveyed to intelligent and informed people at the time it was drafted and ratified," Scalia said.

Judges who interpret the Constitution as an evolving document want to drive issues out of the democratic debate, the justice said.

"When you enshrine new rights in the Constitution, you are impoverishing democracy," he added.

An evolving Constitution will evolve the way the majority wants, Scalia said, adding that if courts can rewrite the Constitution they will rewrite it the way the majority wants.

"Why let five out of nine lawyers decide when the time has come to give women the vote?" he said, instead of granting the franchise by constitutional amendment as occurred in 1920.

He said grounding decisions in the Constitution's text is a way "to prevent Scalia from imposing his views on everybody."

He joked that if judges could interpret the Constitution's goals as set out in the preamble without being bound by the document's full text, "bye, bye Fourth Amendment. The best way to ensure tranquility is to allow unreasonable searches and seizures. We will have a tranquil society."