Does an Originalist interpretation of the Constitution depend on whether or not the Founders themselves were originalists?
Professor Ilan Wurman explains that the Founders did not devise a system for their private intentions to govern, but rather for the written words in the document of the Constitution to be the supreme law. Originalists try to discern the original public meaning of the written words by using a variety of sources for interpretation. In this respect, Originalists are simply doing what all lawyers do with any legal document - deciphering the context and meaning of the words as transcribed.
Ilan Wurman is a visiting assistant professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he teaches administrative law and constitutional law. He is the author of A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism (Cambridge 2017).
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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.
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