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Painting of a person facing another person whose head is made up of sixteen little heads. Untitled (Study) by Geoff McFetridge.

Originalism’s Charade

Two new books make a devastating case against claims that the Constitution should be interpreted on the basis of its purported “original meaning.”
by David Cole via New York Review of Books on November 3, 2022
James Madison
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What Would Madison Think of Originalism? Depends When You Asked Him.

The concern of this article is with the unraveling of precedent based upon a judicial philosophy known as originalism.
by Donald J. Fraser via HNN on June 5, 2022
Painting of the signing of the Constitution.

The Original Theory of Constitutionalism

The debate between "originalism" and the "living constitution" rages on. What does history say?
by David Singh Grewal, Jedediah Britton-Purdy via The Yale Law Journal on January 24, 2018
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1777) holding a book.

A Republic, If We Can Afford It

The framers of the United States Constitution envisoned economic discipline that they thought was a requirement for a republic to endure.
by Larry Schwartz via Public Seminar on November 6, 2025
Bouquet of funerary flowers on top of the Constitution.

How Originalism Killed the Constitution

A radical legal philosophy has undermined the process of constitutional evolution.
by Jill Lepore via The Atlantic on September 10, 2025
Illustration of the Constitution, with the hand of a Founder writing with a feather, and the other side a 21st century hand writing with a pen.

The Supreme Court’s Originalists Are Fundamentally Wrong About History

The Founders didn’t believe the Constitution had a fixed meaning. So why do so many of the justices?
by Andrew Lanham via The New Republic on October 7, 2024
U.S. Constitution

This Book Could Change the Way Conservatives Read the Constitution

“Against Constitutional Originalism” by historian Jonathan Gienapp could fundamentally reorient how we understand America’s founding.
by Cass R. Sunstein via Washington Post on September 25, 2024
Damaged glass negative showing children looking at the U.S. Constitution, 1920.
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A Nation Is a Living Thing

In the 1920s, many in the U.S. fought for a living Constitution. Plenty of others wanted it dead.
by Michael D. Hattem via HNN on August 6, 2024
Barack Obama speaking in front of a museum exhibit titled "Writing the Constitution."

The Constitution and the American Left

A culture of reverence for the U.S. Constitution shields the founding document from criticism, despite its many shortcomings.
by Aziz Rana via Dissent on July 19, 2024
Anti-death penalty protesters standing outside the Supreme Court.

The Hollowing of the Eighth Amendment

The Supreme Court’s Republican majority has been quietly rolling back a longstanding consensus over cruel and unusual punishment.
by Duncan Hosie via New York Review of Books on June 18, 2024
Woman holding up a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Conservatives Don’t Have a Monopoly on Originalism

The text and historical context of the Constitution provide liberals with ample opportunities to advance their own vision of America.
by Simon Lazarus via The New Republic on March 29, 2024
A diagram of the parts of a flintlock pistol.

Bad Facts, Bad Law

In a recent Supreme Court oral argument about disarming domestic abusers, originalism itself was put to the test.
by Duncan Hosie via New York Review of Books on November 25, 2023
East Asian print of musicians entertaining elites.

A Means to an End

The intertwined history of education, history, and patriotism in the United States.
by Michael D. Hattem via Lapham’s Quarterly on December 23, 2022
Supreme Court justices with their heads in boxes made from the Constitution.

Originalism Is Bunk. Liberal Lawyers Shouldn’t Fall For It.

The more liberals present originalist arguments, the more they legitimate originalism.
by Ruth Marcus via Washington Post on December 1, 2022
Eric Foner sits in an arm chair on stage during an interview, holding a microphone.

“Originalism Is Intellectually Indefensible”

On the persistent myth of the colorblind Constitution that the Supreme Court's conservatives have embraced.
by Eric Foner, Cristian Farias via Balls And Strikes on October 28, 2022
A red gun and blue gun pointing in opposite directions, with flags spelling "We"

Originalism, Divided

The theory has not provided the clarity some of its early proponents had hoped it would.
by Harry Litman via The Atlantic on May 25, 2021
Illustrated man with a top hat, sitting next to headstones.

The Left Side of History

Historians have been too much the ideological allies of Progressivism to permit themselves to see its master flaw.
by Allen C. Guelzo via Claremont Review of Books on May 4, 2020

The Original Constitution of the United States: Religion, Race, and Gender

The Constitution of 2018 is not the Constitution written by the Framers in 1787, and no one should wish otherwise.
by Richard D. Brown via Medium on September 20, 2018

The Second Amendment Does Not Transcend All Others

Its text and context don’t ensure an unlimited individual right to bear any kind and number of weapons by anyone.
by Garrett Epps via The Atlantic on March 8, 2018
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How the Fight Over Civil Forfeiture Lays Bare the Contradictions in Modern Conservatism

The brewing conflict between originalism and law-and-order politics.
by Sarah A. Seo via Made By History on July 24, 2017
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Going Negative

Judicial dissent in the Supreme Court has a long history.
by Thomas Healy via Boston Review on November 12, 2015

Founding Fathers, Founding Villains

A review of a handful of new books that embody the new liberal originalism.
by William Hogeland via Boston Review on September 1, 2012
Image of the Preamble: We The People

On Originalism in Constitutional Interpretation

People continue to interpret the U.S. Constitution in different ways. One way is an originalist framework that favors the Founding Father's intent in 1787.
by Steven Calabresi via The National Constitution Center
Collage of the American flag and the preamble to the Constitution.

The Historical Challenge to Originalism

Jonathan Gienapp's attack on originalism deserves a serious response.
by John O. McGinnis, Aaron N. Coleman, Mike Rappaport via Law & Liberty on January 16, 2025
Birthright citizenship form, with infant footprints stamped in black ink, on fire.

The Plot Against Birthright Citizenship

The incoming Trump administration wants to take away citizenship for the US-born children of undocumented immigrants. Here’s how.
by Isabela Dias via Mother Jones on November 26, 2024
Photo of Supreme Court Justices posing in gowns.

The Origin of Specious

Originalism is not so much an idea as a legal-industrial complex divided into three parts—the academic, the jurisprudential, and the political.
by Garrett Epps via Washington Monthly on August 25, 2024
Kamala Harris stands in front of a crowd of voters holidng "Freedom" signs.

Kamala Harris’s “Freedom” Campaign

Democrats’ years-long efforts to reclaim the word are cresting in this year’s Presidential race.
by Peter Slevin via The New Yorker on August 23, 2024
Sections of the US Constitution torn to be used as pennants.

Is the United States Too Devoted to the Constitution?

A new book argues that worship of the Constitution has distorted our politics.
by John Fabian Witt via The New Republic on June 24, 2024
A gavel smashing a wooden house.

The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning

America is suffering from a severe housing shortage. A crucial tool may lie in the Constitution.
by Ilya Somin, Joshua Braver via The Atlantic on June 12, 2024
James Madison by Gilbert Stewart, 1821.

How the Constitution Unifies the Country

Yuval Levin urges us to take America’s greatest constitutional thinker, James Madison, as our lodestar.
by Marc Landy via Law & Liberty on June 11, 2024
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