The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: rangerrebew on March 28, 2017, 10:08:35 am
-
'Originalism' — another word for the rule of law
By Washington Examiner • 3/27/17 12:01 AM
Throughout the weeks leading up to Judge Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the Left took aim at his "originalist" view of the law, the philosophy he candidly shares in common with the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
Liberal commentators have presented characteristically obtuse explanations of what "originalism" or "textualism" means. In the hearings, Democratic senators followed suit.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/originalism-another-word-for-the-rule-of-law/article/2618397#!
-
Exactly. "Originalism" means "takes the words of the laws to mean what any reasonable person would have understood them to mean, when they were initially approved." If you object to that, you object to the very concepts of law and representative government.
-
A good way to describe what "originalism" means is to contrast it with activism, and the best definition of "activism" came from Thurgood Marshall, who when asked by one of his clerks to describe his judicial philosophy said,
"You do what you think is right and let the law catch up."
And that's it, in a nutshell. And originalist will follow the law even if he/she believe it to be wrong. And activist won't.