I’m reading “The Sweep and Force of Section Three” (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751) in which two conservative legal scholars come at the 14th Amendment from an originalist/textualist perspective to argue that ex-President Trump is constitutionally barred from holding federal office. It’s pretty good so far. It makes me wonder (as an aside): there must be analyses of how originalist/textualist the *original* (1800-era) courts were. Links?

#SupremeCourt #originalism #legalInterpretation #history

Clarence Thomas’ cultivation of multiple billionaire donors is actually a classic application of the checks-and-balances principle: he cannot favor any one billionaire, because he can’t risk alienating all the others.

#Originalism #clarencethomas #SCOTUS

@hollybrigstocke @heidilifeldman
And using #Originalism in the #SCOTUS you can say anything is constitutional since all of the fucking founders are dead and can't tell the #KochBrothers personal attorneys on the bench that their interpretation of what Ben Franklin would have thought about assault weapons is demented.

[The Washington Post] How long will Americans put up with the court’s originalism? How long will Americans put up with the court’s originalism?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/07/originalism-supreme-court-second-amendment-reeves/

Republicans have been able to shape the Supreme Court as a regressive conservative institution with no respect for basic civility or the original proclamation that all men are created equal.

In a way, this is like having dictatorship.

#SCOTUS #gop #originalism

@Bongolian
To me #Originalism means that the people in power get to decide what the "Founders" meant to do about the internet, dark money, assault weapons, and such.

Greg Ablavsky takes down Justice Thomas' flawed #Originalism (and Thomas' hate-footnote trying to rebut Greg's fabulous work) in his Haaland v. Brackeen dissent.

Kinda sad when the best support for your theories is your own dissents & concurrences, plus a 20 yr old article in the Denver L. Review, but that's what happens when you start with results then try to make the history fit later.
#Law #LawFedi #SCOTUS #Brackeen #ICWA #HIstory #Indigenous
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/06/clarence-thomas-indian-law-originalism-history.html

Justice Alito Discovers Life is Not Fair? The Horrors. W.T.F.????
Today's supreme court oral arguments on Biden/student loan forgiveness was a circlejerk of conservative (so-called) poppycock, an almost surreal event. Worthy of an SNL sketch or 10, an Onion headline or 6 and a pox on this runaway court.
#originalism #ayatollahs #notmySCOTUS

Constitutional #originalism makes as much sense as technical architecture #originalism.

#sociotechnical

Two new books make a devastating case against claims that the #Constitution should be interpreted on the basis of its purported “original meaning.”

#originalism

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2022/11/24/originalisms-charade-worse-than-nothing-chemerinsky/