ALBANY – A Democratic candidate for governor, Eliot Spitzer, yesterday criticized the strict “constructionist” view of Supreme Court Justice Scalia, who views the Constitution as unalterable by cultural or social trends.

“As a citizen, and as the state’s lawyer, I believe in an evolving Constitution,” Mr. Spitzer, the state attorney general, said, at the annual Law Day ceremony at the New York Court of Appeals. “A flexible Constitution leaves room for us to consider not merely how the world once was, but how it ought to be.”

The next governor will have at least two spots to fill on the seven-member court with Judge Albert Rosenblatt’s term ending on December 31 and Chief Judge Judith Kaye’s ending next March.

Mr. Spitzer said that under the strict “constructionist” reading of the Constitution favored by Justice Scalia and others, the “separate but equal” policy of segregation would still be allowed, there would never have been a Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights and children could still be executed for felonies. Justice Scalia is considered one of the most conservative members of the court.

Mr. Spitzer, leading in the polls to be New York’s next governor, declined to discuss what type of judge he would nominate to the state’s highest court, but said he would favor someone whose constitutional analysis jibes with his own.

Governor Pataki will have the chance to fill one more spot on the court with Judge George Bundy Smith’s term ending in September. Smith has applied to be reappointed to the bench.

A Republican candidate, John Faso, criticized Mr. Spitzer for his comments.

“I think that it’s very unfortunate that an attorney general would attack by name a sitting justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said.