{"id":27612,"date":"2017-03-29T05:45:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T09:45:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=27612"},"modified":"2017-03-28T19:26:47","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T23:26:47","slug":"originalism-and-the-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/03\/originalism-and-the-rule-of-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Originalism and the rule of law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"8459580668_6b116eeb71_z\"<\/a>During his confirmation hearing for Supreme Court justice, liberal senators interrogated Neil Gorsuch about his judicial philosophy of \u201coriginalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because the founders used \u201che\u201d to refer to the president, does this mean you don\u2019t believe that a woman can serve in that office?<\/p>\n

Because the authors of the 14th Amendment\u00a0didn\u2019t think about women or gays when they drew up the equal rights protection, does that mean you don\u2019t think it applies to women or gays?<\/p>\n

Judge Gorsuch replied that such\u00a0questions show a misunderstanding of what \u201coriginalism\u201d means. \u00a0That approach does not look for meaning in subjective interpretations of readers, whether of the time it was written or today. \u00a0Rather, it looks for meaning in what the law says<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

To discern that, you have to research what the words meant to the lawmakers who passed the law; that is, their original intent. \u00a0But to interpret (or throw out) a\u00a0law based on speculation about the personal beliefs\u00a0of the authors\u2013as opposed to what they said<\/em>\u2013is more like what liberal interpreters do when they<\/em> interpret the laws according to their own personal beliefs. \u00a0Thus, \u201coriginalism\u201d refers to the original language,\u00a0<\/em>not historical origins.<\/p>\n

That is, originalists believe that the meaning of language and thus the law is objective, not subjective. \u00a0The 14th Amendment <\/a>\u00a0guarantees the equal protection of the laws to all Americans, so that would\u00a0include categories of Americans that the authors didn\u2019t think of at the time.<\/p>\n

The rule of law, notes an editorial on the subject (quoted and excerpted after the jump), depends on the law having an objective meaning.<\/p>\n

This debate reminds me of different approaches to the Bible. \u00a0Do we interpret it according to what we want it to mean? \u00a0That\u2019s basically the approach of liberal theology. \u00a0Or do we believe in what it says<\/em>?<\/p>\n

From \u2018Originalism\u2019 \u2014 another word for the rule of law | Washington Examiner<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Throughout the weeks leading up to Judge Neil Gorsuch\u2019s Supreme Court<\/a> confirmation hearings, the Left took aim at his \u201coriginalist\u201d view of the law, the philosophy he candidly shares in common with the late Justice Antonin Scalia.<\/p>\n

Liberal commentators have presented characteristically obtuse explanations of what \u201coriginalism\u201d or \u201ctextualism\u201d means. In the hearings, Democratic senators followed suit.<\/p>\n

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked whether, given the Constitution\u2019s use of the word \u201che\u201d to describe the president, an originalist can believe that a woman could become president. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, grossly mischaracterized Scalia (who is no longer around to defend himself) in asking a question presumably written for her by a rabid staffer: \u201cDo you agree with Justice Scalia\u2019s statements that originalism means that there is no protection for women or gays and lesbians under the equal-protection law because this was not the intent or the understanding of those who drafted the 14th Amendment in 1868?\u201d<\/p>\n

It would, in fact, be the opposite of originalism to interpret the law according to hidden racist or sexist ideas or intentions supposedly in the minds of its drafters. Gorsuch explained this to Feinstein in his reply, one of his most illuminating statements in the entire confirmation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of originalism,\u201d Gorsuch explained patiently to Feinstein, \u201cis to strive to understand what the words on the page mean. Not import words that come from us, but apply what you, the people\u2019s representative, the lawmakers, have done \u2026 I think that guarantee \u2014 equal protection of the laws guarantee in the 14th Amendment, that it took a civil war for this country to win \u2014 is maybe the most radical guarantee in all of the Constitution, and maybe in all of human history. It\u2019s a fantastic thing, and that\u2019s why it is chiseled in Vermont marble above the entrance to the Supreme Court<\/a> of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

With this explanation, Gorsuch explained not just originalism, but also the very purpose and importance of written law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Illustration by KAZ Vorpal, Flickr, Creative Commons License<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During his confirmation hearing for Supreme Court justice, liberal senators interrogated Neil Gorsuch about his judicial philosophy of \u201coriginalism.\u201d Because the founders used \u201che\u201d to refer to the president, does this mean you don\u2019t believe that a woman can serve in that office? Because the authors of the 14th Amendment\u00a0didn\u2019t think about women or gays […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,26,35],"tags":[568,1010,5175,5317,1936],"class_list":["post-27612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language","category-law","category-philosophy-2","tag-constitutional-law","tag-hermeneutics","tag-judge-neil-gorsuch","tag-originalism","tag-rule-of-law"],"yoast_head":"\nOriginalism and the rule of law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearings show misunderstandings of his judicial philosophy of "originalism." 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