biblical literalism and constitutional originalism
... matively good or desirable—is in stark tension with literalism’s commitment to biblically defined “absolute standards of law and justice.”4 Whereas originalism requires the interpreter to enforce specific provisions of the text without regard to the interpreter’s personal moral judgments about the t ...
... matively good or desirable—is in stark tension with literalism’s commitment to biblically defined “absolute standards of law and justice.”4 Whereas originalism requires the interpreter to enforce specific provisions of the text without regard to the interpreter’s personal moral judgments about the t ...
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... 1860s in private rights with the interest of the 1790s in rights having structural goals. Thus it must be asked whether an alleged right is one “vested in discrete individuals.” The larger point is that, to the extent that the Fourteenth Amendment applies the Bill of Rights to the states, it does s ...
... 1860s in private rights with the interest of the 1790s in rights having structural goals. Thus it must be asked whether an alleged right is one “vested in discrete individuals.” The larger point is that, to the extent that the Fourteenth Amendment applies the Bill of Rights to the states, it does s ...
on constitutional disobedience
... his gap between them and us provides a powerful argument for giving up on constitutional obedience. The sheer oddity of making modern decisions based upon an old and archaic text ought to give constitutionalists pause. They insist that we follow the commands of people who knew nothing of our problem ...
... his gap between them and us provides a powerful argument for giving up on constitutional obedience. The sheer oddity of making modern decisions based upon an old and archaic text ought to give constitutionalists pause. They insist that we follow the commands of people who knew nothing of our problem ...
Political Development and the Origins of the "Living Constitution"
... Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who, for the time being have the power to ...
... Constitution, according to the fixed rules which govern the interpretation of laws, is abandoned, and the theoretical opinions of individuals are allowed to control its meaning, we have no longer a Constitution; we are under the government of individual men, who, for the time being have the power to ...
Judicial Interpretations
... Textualism is a similar philosophy of interpretation, though with significant differences. Textualists, like Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, agree with Strict Constructionists that the proper scope of inquiry into Constitutional interpretation begins and ends with the text itself--not with ...
... Textualism is a similar philosophy of interpretation, though with significant differences. Textualists, like Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court, agree with Strict Constructionists that the proper scope of inquiry into Constitutional interpretation begins and ends with the text itself--not with ...
Originalism
In the context of United States constitutional interpretation, originalism is a principle of interpretation that views the Constitution's meaning as fixed as of the time of enactment. The originalist enterprise, then, is a quest to determine the meaning of the utterances, the meaning of which cannot change except through formal amendment. The term originated in the 1980s but the concept resonates with formalist theory and is a special example of textualism, which is the term normally applied for statutory—as opposed to constitutional—interpretation.Today, originalism is popular among some political conservatives in the U.S., and is most prominently associated with Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Robert Bork. However, some liberals, such as Justice Hugo Black and Akhil Amar, have also subscribed to the theory.Originalism is an umbrella term for interpretative methods that hold to the ""fixation thesis""—the notion that an utterance's semantic content is fixed at the time it is uttered. There are two broad source of meaning that originalists seek: The original intent theory, which holds that interpretation of a written constitution is (or should be) consistent with what was meant by those who drafted and ratified it. This is currently a minority view among originalists.The original meaning theory, which is closely related to textualism, is the view that interpretation of a written constitution or law should be based on what reasonable persons living at the time of its adoption would have declared the ordinary meaning of the text to be. It is this view with which most originalists, such as Justice Scalia, are associated.These theories share the view that there is an identifiable original intent or original meaning, contemporaneous with a constitution's or statute's ratification, which should govern its subsequent interpretation. The divisions between these theories relate to what exactly that identifiable original intent or original meaning is: the intentions of the authors or the ratifiers, the original meaning of the text, a combination of the two, or the original meaning of the text but not its expected application.