Five decades ago, originalism wasn’t even an -ism. In the academy, at the bar, and on the courts, the Constitution was interpreted as a living, breathing document. Contemporary values mattered more ...

These days, everyone wants to be an originalist. But in Trump v. Barbara, the birthright-citizenship case at the Supreme Court, not everyone is doing originalism well. Alas, the Trump administration ...

Every major question in American public life ultimately returns to a single source of authority: the Constitution. Whether the issue concerns abortion, the scope of federal agencies, the death penalty ...

Late last week, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett took center stage at the Federalist Society’s annual gala in the nation’s capital, offering reflections on what it means to take the ...

For more than four decades, the Federalist Society (FedSoc) at the University of Chicago Law School has played a visible role ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Most originalists today would say they adhere to an “original public meaning”—interpreting the document as it was understood by ...

Originalism teaches only that the Constitution’s original meaning is fixed; meanwhile, of course, new applications of that meaning will arise with new developments and new technologies. Consider a few ...

It is easy to take for granted that the current Supreme Court has a majority of committed originalists. But only four decades ago, such a court would have been unimaginable. Who deserves credit for ...

Please note that SCOTUS Outside Opinions constitute the views of outside contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SCOTUSblog or its staff. In a recent interview, Justice Amy Coney ...