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Original Methods Originalism Is Already the Norm

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In response to: The Legal Turn

Unless one thinks that the Constitution doesn’t matter or shouldn’t be enforced, it’s a legal text that legal training can help explicate.

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The Legal U-Turn

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On the rare occasion when the public meaning diverges from the legal meaning, the public meaning probably ought to prevail.

Originalism’s Circle of Life

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A core aspect of the new originalism is best understood as a shift to originalism as a theory of law.

The Legal Turn: McGinnis and Rappaport Respond to Their Critics

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Justice Gorsuch treated due process as part of the language of the law in Sessions v. Dimaya. It’s evidence that the legal turn continues to gather strength.

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Original Methods Originalism Part III: The Minimization of the Construction Zone Thesis

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In this third post on Original Methods Originalism, I want to conclude by explaining how original methods has the potential for signficantly limiting the discretion that judges exercise under an originalist approach. One of the key issues in recent originalist theory involves the distinction between interpretation and construction.  For my purposes, it is not the distinction between interpretation and construction, but the distinction between interpretation and the construction zone that is important.  Interpretation involves the process for determining the actual meaning of a constitutional provision.  After applying the interpretive process, it is possible that the original meaning may not decide the…

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