Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The theory that the US Constitution should be interpreted based on the intent of its authors, as determined by examining evidence of their understanding of the meaning of its wording in its historical context.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The view that a
text should be interpreted according to theintent of itsoriginal authors.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the belief that the United States Constitution should be interpreted in the way the authors originally intended it
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But to say that every legitimate constitutional scholar says that all of ‘Obamacare’ (e.g., the individual mandate) passes muster, assumes that originalism is not a legitimate form of constitutional interpretation.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Inaccurate legal claim from the Democratic Governors Association 2010
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If originalism is even a valid and legitimate mode of interpretation, how should it be done?
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One of the rhetorical strengths of originalism is that it begins with a proposition most everyone agrees with (that the intent of the Framers is essential for understanding the meaning of the Constitution) and then cleverly moves on to determine what exactly “original intent” means with less discussion.
The Volokh Conspiracy » A Quick Response to Randy on the Use of “Unprecedented” 2010
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Mr. STEPHEN BREYER (Supreme Court Justice): People think we decide things politically, or at least if we don't decide things politically, we're deciding on whatever we think is good in some general way; or that the only way to protect against subjective views of judges is to have something called originalism, which is as if you could reach decisions by means of an historical computer.
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Mr. STEPHEN BREYER (Supreme Court Justice): People think we decide things politically, or at least if we don't decide things politically, we're deciding on whatever we think is good in some general way; or that the only way to protect against subjective views of judges is to have something called originalism, which is as if you could reach decisions by means of an historical computer.
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Mr. STEPHEN BREYER (Supreme Court Justice): People think we decide things politically, or at least if we don't decide things politically, we're deciding on whatever we think is good in some general way; or that the only way to protect against subjective views of judges is to have something called originalism, which is as if you could reach decisions by means of an historical computer.
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In fact, one argument for my version of originalism is precisely that it allows us to understand the most valuable achievements of American constitutionalism in the past two centuries as reasonable implementations of text and principle rather than mistakes that we are stuck with because it would now be too politically embarrassing to disown them.
Balkinization 2007
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If a version of originalism is incapable of finding a conflict between original meaning and modern practice, then it isn't originalism, it's just "living" constitutionalism flying under a false flag.
Balkinization 2007
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To derive original meaning he often looks to practices and principles as they would have been understood at the time the text was framed (his opinions regarding the equal protection clause are a notable exception); thus his version of original meaning originalism is heavily informed by what I have called original expected application.
Balkinization 2007
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Nevertheless, once we recognize the full implications of this distinction, original meaning originalism is fully compatible with living constitutionalism.
Balkinization 2007
erinmckean commented on the word originalism
He pioneered “originalism,” a theory holding that the Constitution should be interpreted in line with the beliefs of the white men, many of them slave owners, who ratified it in the late eighteenth century. The New Yorker, 29 Feb 2016
February 22, 2016
qms commented on the word originalism
Even Scalia’s ideological allies recognized the folly of trying to divine the “intent” of the authors of the Constitution concerning questions that those bewigged worthies could never have anticipated.
February 22, 2016