This is part of How Originalism Ate the Law, a Slate series about the legal theory that ruined everything. Perhaps the most consistent features of originalist decisions are their density and verbosity: To determine whether a purported right is sufficiently “deeply rooted” in “history and tradition,” justices and judges conduct meandering surveys of English common law, quote the dusty treatises …
This is part of How Originalism Ate the Law, a Slate series about the legal theory that ruined everything. Kagan, however, came to regret that quip after watching her conservative colleagues implement a series of GOP policy preferences in the name of applying the Constitution’s “original” meaning, which is what originalism claims to be. In both, she delivered: The justice …
This is part of How Originalism Ate the Law, a Slate series about the legal theory that ruined everything. To take a step back, the Second Amendment itself reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” As historian and author …
This is part of How Originalism Ate the Law, a Slate series about the legal theory that ruined everything. And that’s because the whole nation is currently lashed to a small, stupid, perpetually changing theory of legal interpretation variously known as “originalism,” or “textualism,” or “original public meaning,” or “history and tradition.” A theory that is—unless you were born in …
