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#originalism — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #originalism, aggregated by home.social.

  1. ... of the word "meat" in the #King #James #Bible denoted general solid food or grain, not animal flesh—a distinction that disproves contemporary misinterpretations of biblical dietary decrees.
    -
    Can I get Clarence #Thomas to do some #Originalism to his diet? 🤯🤯🤯 LOL 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

  2. The Séance Court: Original Intent and the Fraud of Speaking for the Dead

    Nine lawyers in black robes sit in a marble temple in Washington and commune with the dead. They ask James Madison, silent since 1836, how he feels about bump stocks. They ask a Virginia planter to rule on geofence warrants and a Boston merchant to weigh encrypted messaging, and they transcribe the answers with straight faces into the United States Reports. Every other corner of American life has a name for this ritual. When a widow pays for it in a candlelit parlor, we call it a séance and we call the medium a fraud. When five justices perform it in October Term, we call it originalism, and law schools award tenure for defending the candles. […]

    bolesblogs.com/2026/07/09/the-

  3. The Séance Court: Original Intent and the Fraud of Speaking for the Dead

    Nine lawyers in black robes sit in a marble temple in Washington and commune with the dead. They ask James Madison, silent since 1836, how he feels about bump stocks. They ask a Virginia planter to rule on geofence warrants and a Boston merchant to weigh encrypted messaging, and they transcribe the answers with straight faces into the United States Reports. Every other corner of American life has a name for this ritual. When a widow pays for it in a candlelit parlor, we call it a séance and we call the medium a fraud. When five justices perform it in October Term, we call it originalism, and law schools award tenure for defending the candles. […]

    bolesblogs.com/2026/07/09/the-

  4. The Séance Court: Original Intent and the Fraud of Speaking for the Dead

    Nine lawyers in black robes sit in a marble temple in Washington and commune with the dead. They ask James Madison, silent since 1836, how he feels about bump stocks. They ask a Virginia planter to rule on geofence warrants and a Boston merchant to weigh encrypted messaging, and they transcribe the answers with straight faces into the United States Reports. Every other corner of American life has a name for this ritual. When a widow pays for it in a candlelit parlor, we call it a séance and we call the medium a fraud. When five justices perform it in October Term, we call it originalism, and law schools award tenure for defending the candles. […]

    bolesblogs.com/2026/07/09/the-

  5. The Séance Court: Original Intent and the Fraud of Speaking for the Dead

    Nine lawyers in black robes sit in a marble temple in Washington and commune with the dead. They ask James Madison, silent since 1836, how he feels about bump stocks. They ask a Virginia planter to rule on geofence warrants and a Boston merchant to weigh encrypted messaging, and they transcribe the answers with straight faces into the United States Reports. Every other corner of American life has a name for this ritual. When a widow pays for it in a candlelit parlor, we call it a séance and we call the medium a fraud. When five justices perform it in October Term, we call it originalism, and law schools award tenure for defending the candles. […]

    bolesblogs.com/2026/07/09/the-

  6. The Séance Court: Original Intent and the Fraud of Speaking for the Dead

    Nine lawyers in black robes sit in a marble temple in Washington and commune with the dead. They ask James Madison, silent since 1836, how he feels about bump stocks. They ask a Virginia planter to rule on geofence warrants and a Boston merchant to weigh encrypted messaging, and they transcribe the answers with straight faces into the United States Reports. Every other corner of American life has a name for this ritual. When a widow pays for it in a candlelit parlor, we call it a séance and we call the medium a fraud. When five justices perform it in October Term, we call it originalism, and law schools award tenure for defending the candles. […]

    bolesblogs.com/2026/07/09/the-

  7. RE: masto.ai/@Nonilex/116166253466

    "The real racism is anti-racism. Can we go back to the three fifths compromise? #originalism"

  8. RE: masto.ai/@Nonilex/116166253466

    "The real racism is anti-racism. Can we go back to the three fifths compromise? #originalism"

  9. I was singing the wrong words to a Snapcase song. I thought he was shouting "filth" but now i think he's saying "self" and somehow this makes me accept the idea of a "soft s" as the American forefathers intended it
    #originalism

  10. I was singing the wrong words to a Snapcase song. I thought he was shouting "filth" but now i think he's saying "self" and somehow this makes me accept the idea of a "soft s" as the American forefathers intended it
    #originalism

  11. 1775 vs. 2025: The Epstein List and the Founders

    This video was recorded 6 months ago...and it is even more evidently pertinent today:
    The founding fathers, since mythologized and canonized, made up the Epstein List of their times.

    #Originalism
    #MakeAmericaGreatAgain

    youtube.com/watch?v=C6KBGRk4yQc

  12. That is where #state lawmakers come in, Professor Amar said.

    “Sometimes the #federal government will misbehave,” he said, “& you can’t count on #Congress always to rein the federal government in.”

    His article drew on 2 principles often associated with #conservatives: #federalism & #originalism.

    “This is exactly what the framers imagined: state law protecting us against federal abuses,” Professor Amar said.

    #Trump #law #UseOfForce #Constitution #StatesRights #CivilRights #autocracy #ICE #CBP

  13. That is where #state lawmakers come in, Professor Amar said.

    “Sometimes the #federal government will misbehave,” he said, “& you can’t count on #Congress always to rein the federal government in.”

    His article drew on 2 principles often associated with #conservatives: #federalism & #originalism.

    “This is exactly what the framers imagined: state law protecting us against federal abuses,” Professor Amar said.

    #Trump #law #UseOfForce #Constitution #StatesRights #CivilRights #autocracy #ICE #CBP

  14. Anthony Kennedy, a retired Supreme Court Justice, did not comment on specific cases decided after he left the court, but he criticized the Supreme Court overuse of the #ShadowDocket which lets the court issue decisions without explaining why they reached those decisions. He also criticized #originalism as a basis for reaching decisions:
    sacbee.com/news/local/article3
    #TheJudicialBranch #law #politics

  15. Anthony Kennedy, a retired Supreme Court Justice, did not comment on specific cases decided after he left the court, but he criticized the Supreme Court overuse of the #ShadowDocket which lets the court issue decisions without explaining why they reached those decisions. He also criticized #originalism as a basis for reaching decisions:
    sacbee.com/news/local/article3
    #TheJudicialBranch #law #politics

  16. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the #Constitution.”

    Professor Nelson is a former #ClarenceThomas law clerk and is often cited in opinions by the six conservative members of #SCOTUS. According to Nelson, reversing the landmark case #HumphreysExecutor would be an originalism mistake.

    #originalism #ruleoflaw #legal #unitaryexecutivetheory

    dorfonlaw.org/2025/10/the-empe

  17. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the #Constitution.”

    Professor Nelson is a former #ClarenceThomas law clerk and is often cited in opinions by the six conservative members of #SCOTUS. According to Nelson, reversing the landmark case #HumphreysExecutor would be an originalism mistake.

    #originalism #ruleoflaw #legal #unitaryexecutivetheory

    dorfonlaw.org/2025/10/the-empe

  18. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the #Constitution.”

    Professor Nelson is a former #ClarenceThomas law clerk and is often cited in opinions by the six conservative members of #SCOTUS. According to Nelson, reversing the landmark case #HumphreysExecutor would be an originalism mistake.

    #originalism #ruleoflaw #legal #unitaryexecutivetheory

    dorfonlaw.org/2025/10/the-empe

  19. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the #Constitution.”

    Professor Nelson is a former #ClarenceThomas law clerk and is often cited in opinions by the six conservative members of #SCOTUS. According to Nelson, reversing the landmark case #HumphreysExecutor would be an originalism mistake.

    #originalism #ruleoflaw #legal #unitaryexecutivetheory

    dorfonlaw.org/2025/10/the-empe

  20. “Caleb Nelson, one of the most respected originalist scholars in the country, comes out against the unitary executive interpretation” of the #Constitution.”

    Professor Nelson is a former #ClarenceThomas law clerk and is often cited in opinions by the six conservative members of #SCOTUS. According to Nelson, reversing the landmark case #HumphreysExecutor would be an originalism mistake.

    #originalism #ruleoflaw #legal #unitaryexecutivetheory

    dorfonlaw.org/2025/10/the-empe

  21. @Nonilex

    "...that expanded gun rights by finding the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to carry firearms."

    Amazing how the #SCOTUS continues to erase the predicate clause of the #SecondAmendment

    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..."

    How many of these people are members of any "well regulated #Militia"?

    Remember #Originalism and #Textualism and #OriginalIntent all that?

    Utterly meaningless when it gets in the way of #MAGA #AmmoSexuals and their auto-erotic gun fantasies

  22. @Nonilex

    "...that expanded gun rights by finding the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to carry firearms."

    Amazing how the #SCOTUS continues to erase the predicate clause of the #SecondAmendment

    "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State..."

    How many of these people are members of any "well regulated #Militia"?

    Remember #Originalism and #Textualism and #OriginalIntent all that?

    Utterly meaningless when it gets in the way of #MAGA #AmmoSexuals and their auto-erotic gun fantasies

  23. “[Because of originalism] I cannot do the wicked conservative things I would want to do to this society,” Scalia said.

    Not to worry, Justice. The court is now doing all the wickedness for which you yearned.
    #JusticeScalia #SCOTUS #Originalism #USConstitution

    yaledailynews.com/blog/2006/11

  24. @bespacific

    "...the #legal doctrine that suggests #courts should follow #legal #precedent or prior decisions"

    So all that #Constitutional "#Originalism" and "#Textualism" goes out the window

    Been waiting for one of the Treasonous Six to finally admit this

    #SCOTUS

  25. @bespacific

    "...the #legal doctrine that suggests #courts should follow #legal #precedent or prior decisions"

    So all that #Constitutional "#Originalism" and "#Textualism" goes out the window

    Been waiting for one of the Treasonous Six to finally admit this

    #SCOTUS

  26. @foolsgarden I am really glad that someone is finally criticizing "#originalism". Whenever I read a #SupremeCourt decision that begins with references to early America, everything that follows is irrational, illogical, or both. Examples: District of Columbia v. Heller, NRA v. ATF, McDonald v. Chicago. I am glad a respected scholar is calling this out.

  27. A good case study in whiteness not only *not* being censored by the "woke mob", but actually being institutionally rewarded.

    ===

    Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on “originalism,” the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted.

    In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase “We the People,” in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against “criminal infiltrators at the border.”

    ...

    Mr. Damsky’s paper includes arguments similar to those recently adopted by the Trump administration, including a call to “reconsider” birthright citizenship, and an assertion that “aliens remain second-class persons under the Constitution.”

    It also argues that courts should challenge the constitutionality of the 14th Amendment, which ensures birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law, and the 15th Amendment, which protects the right to vote for nonwhite citizens.

    Mr. Damsky concluded the paper by raising the specter of revolutionary action if the steps he recommended toward forging a white ethno-state were not taken. “The People cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty,” he wrote, adding that if the courts did not act to ensure a white country, the matter would be decided “not by the careful balance of Justitia’s scales, but by the gruesome slashing of her sword.”

    nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/whit

    #WhiteNationalism #fascism #originalism #fcknzs #NeoNazis #PrestonDamsky #14thAmendment #15thAmendment #BirthrightCitizenship

  28. A good case study in whiteness not only *not* being censored by the "woke mob", but actually being institutionally rewarded.

    ===

    Preston Damsky is a law student at the University of Florida. He is also a white nationalist and antisemite. Last fall, he took a seminar taught by a federal judge on “originalism,” the legal theory favored by many conservatives that seeks to interpret the Constitution based on its meaning when it was adopted.

    In his capstone paper for the class, Mr. Damsky argued that the framers had intended for the phrase “We the People,” in the Constitution’s preamble, to refer exclusively to white people. From there, he argued for the removal of voting rights protections for nonwhites, and for the issuance of shoot-to-kill orders against “criminal infiltrators at the border.”

    ...

    Mr. Damsky’s paper includes arguments similar to those recently adopted by the Trump administration, including a call to “reconsider” birthright citizenship, and an assertion that “aliens remain second-class persons under the Constitution.”

    It also argues that courts should challenge the constitutionality of the 14th Amendment, which ensures birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection under the law, and the 15th Amendment, which protects the right to vote for nonwhite citizens.

    Mr. Damsky concluded the paper by raising the specter of revolutionary action if the steps he recommended toward forging a white ethno-state were not taken. “The People cannot be expected to meekly swallow this demographic assault on their sovereignty,” he wrote, adding that if the courts did not act to ensure a white country, the matter would be decided “not by the careful balance of Justitia’s scales, but by the gruesome slashing of her sword.”

    nytimes.com/2025/06/21/us/whit

    #WhiteNationalism #fascism #originalism #fcknzs #NeoNazis #PrestonDamsky #14thAmendment #15thAmendment #BirthrightCitizenship

  29. #Leonard #Leo was born on Long Island in the mid-sixties.
    When he was only a toddler, he lost his father — a pastry chef — to cancer.
    At the age of five, his mother remarried, and the Leos moved to New Jersey, where he attended Monroe Township High School.
    Leo was chosen as the “Most Likely to Succeed”
    a distinction he shared with classmate #Sally #Schroeder, his future wife.
    In the yearbook, the two were shown sitting next to each other, holding wads of cash and with dollar signs painted on their glasses.
    He was so effective at raising money for his senior prom that his classmates nicknamed him the “Moneybags Kid.” 
    Throughout his life, he remained steeped in the deep Catholicism of his grandfather, who had emigrated to the United States from Italy as a teenager;
    his grandparents attended Mass daily, and encouraged the young Leonard to follow their lead.
    After high school, Leo went to Cornell University, studying under a group of conservative academics in the university’s department of government
    and with the wider national backdrop of iconoclastic scholars led by Yale University’s #Robert #Bork and the University of Chicago’s #Antonin #Scalia, who were building the case for a novel legal doctrine known as #originalism.
    He got a series of internships in Washington, D.C., during the final years of the Reagan administration,
    then returned to Cornell to join the law school, where in 1989 he founded the local chapter of a student organization called the #Federalist #Society.
    That group had been set up by three conservative-leaning students from Yale, Harvard, and Chicago seven years earlier as a way of challenging what they saw as the dominance of liberal ideology at the country’s law schools. 

    After graduating, Leo married Sally, who had been raised as a Protestant but who used to go to Catholic Mass five times every weekend because she played the organ.

    She decided to convert not long before her marriage.

    The couple moved back to Washington, where Leo clerked for a judge on the court of appeals and became close with another appellate judge who had recently been appointed to the D.C. circuit
    — a man from Georgia called #Clarence #Thomas,
    who had toyed with becoming a Catholic priest.

    Despite being ten years older and from much more humble origins,
    Thomas shared Leo’s conservative outlook, and the two soon developed a deep friendship that would endure for many years.

    During this period, Leo was asked by the Federalist Society to become its first employee
    — although he delayed his start date so that he could help his good friend Thomas through his contentious confirmation process for the Supreme Court.

    Despite accusations of sexual harassment hanging over him, Thomas won Senate confirmation by a slim margin.

    It would be the first in a series of fights in which Leo would have to put aside the teachings of his Christian faith as he focused on the greater goal of pushing through a conservative revolution of the courts and of society at large.
    rollingstone.com/politics/poli

  30. #Leonard #Leo was born on Long Island in the mid-sixties.
    When he was only a toddler, he lost his father — a pastry chef — to cancer.
    At the age of five, his mother remarried, and the Leos moved to New Jersey, where he attended Monroe Township High School.
    Leo was chosen as the “Most Likely to Succeed”
    a distinction he shared with classmate #Sally #Schroeder, his future wife.
    In the yearbook, the two were shown sitting next to each other, holding wads of cash and with dollar signs painted on their glasses.
    He was so effective at raising money for his senior prom that his classmates nicknamed him the “Moneybags Kid.” 
    Throughout his life, he remained steeped in the deep Catholicism of his grandfather, who had emigrated to the United States from Italy as a teenager;
    his grandparents attended Mass daily, and encouraged the young Leonard to follow their lead.
    After high school, Leo went to Cornell University, studying under a group of conservative academics in the university’s department of government
    and with the wider national backdrop of iconoclastic scholars led by Yale University’s #Robert #Bork and the University of Chicago’s #Antonin #Scalia, who were building the case for a novel legal doctrine known as #originalism.
    He got a series of internships in Washington, D.C., during the final years of the Reagan administration,
    then returned to Cornell to join the law school, where in 1989 he founded the local chapter of a student organization called the #Federalist #Society.
    That group had been set up by three conservative-leaning students from Yale, Harvard, and Chicago seven years earlier as a way of challenging what they saw as the dominance of liberal ideology at the country’s law schools. 

    After graduating, Leo married Sally, who had been raised as a Protestant but who used to go to Catholic Mass five times every weekend because she played the organ.

    She decided to convert not long before her marriage.

    The couple moved back to Washington, where Leo clerked for a judge on the court of appeals and became close with another appellate judge who had recently been appointed to the D.C. circuit
    — a man from Georgia called #Clarence #Thomas,
    who had toyed with becoming a Catholic priest.

    Despite being ten years older and from much more humble origins,
    Thomas shared Leo’s conservative outlook, and the two soon developed a deep friendship that would endure for many years.

    During this period, Leo was asked by the Federalist Society to become its first employee
    — although he delayed his start date so that he could help his good friend Thomas through his contentious confirmation process for the Supreme Court.

    Despite accusations of sexual harassment hanging over him, Thomas won Senate confirmation by a slim margin.

    It would be the first in a series of fights in which Leo would have to put aside the teachings of his Christian faith as he focused on the greater goal of pushing through a conservative revolution of the courts and of society at large.
    rollingstone.com/politics/poli

  31. ⬆️ @GreenFire

    >> I could support #MakeAmericaGreatAgain if all that it entails is that only flintlock muskets are allowed again.

    No #MAGA #justice will ever agree with you on THAT kind of #originalism and #textualism on the #SecondAmendment, nor on the "well-regulated militia" part, which I want to add to your point.

  32. In “The #Originalism Trap: How #Extremists Stole the #Constitution & How We the People Can Take It Back,” Madiba K. Dennie, a #CivilRights lawyer & #legal commentator, offers a trenchant, sharply worded critique of originalist theories — & a call for a popular revolt against them. This is a timely project given that the number of #SCOTUS justices who espouse such theories could increase if #Trump is elected to the White House again this fall.

    #law #books #nonfiction

  33. In “The #Originalism Trap: How #Extremists Stole the #Constitution & How We the People Can Take It Back,” Madiba K. Dennie, a #CivilRights lawyer & #legal commentator, offers a trenchant, sharply worded critique of originalist theories — & a call for a popular revolt against them. This is a timely project given that the number of #SCOTUS justices who espouse such theories could increase if #Trump is elected to the White House again this fall.

    #law #books #nonfiction

  34. For one thing, skeptics say, its adherents have abandoned their search for the #intent of the #framers, a quixotic task that can lead only to indeterminate answers. #Originalism as currently practiced is a modern invention whose methods have little to do w/how the founding generation conceived of the #Constitution or its method of interpretation, as recent historical research has shown. The theory’s advocates claim objectivity as one of its strengths, but the court relies on it haphazardly:

  35. For one thing, skeptics say, its adherents have abandoned their search for the #intent of the #framers, a quixotic task that can lead only to indeterminate answers. #Originalism as currently practiced is a modern invention whose methods have little to do w/how the founding generation conceived of the #Constitution or its method of interpretation, as recent historical research has shown. The theory’s advocates claim objectivity as one of its strengths, but the court relies on it haphazardly:

  36. #Originalism is the assertion that judges should be guided & limited in interpreting the #Constitution solely by something original in it, although that “something” has shifted over time — from the original #intent of its #framers, to the original public #meaning of its text, to the original #law at the time of its adoption, w/various sub-theories now debated. The theory has been sharply criticized.

    #law #SCOTUS

  37. #Originalism is the assertion that judges should be guided & limited in interpreting the #Constitution solely by something original in it, although that “something” has shifted over time — from the original #intent of its #framers, to the original public #meaning of its text, to the original #law at the time of its adoption, w/various sub-theories now debated. The theory has been sharply criticized.

    #law #SCOTUS

  38. One of the more striking questions raised by #SCOTUS’ controversial recent decisions—such as its partial shielding of #Trump from #criminal liability for his efforts to overturn the legitimate result of the 2020 pres election—is how they square w/the court’s embrace of #originalism as a theory of constitutional interpretation. The court’s #immunity decision…was mainly non-originalist in its reasoning, despite the fact that 7 justices…have shown some affinity for originalist interpretation.

    #law