Worse than nothing : the dangerous fallacy of originalism / Erwin Chemerinsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chemerinsky, Erwin, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--Interpretation and construction.

Law.

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

Constitutional law--Philosophy.

Origin (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut : Yale University Press, [2022]

Summary:

Why originalism is a flawed, incoherent, and dangerously ideological method of constitutional interpretation Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Three of the Supreme Court’s nine justices explicitly embrace the originalist approach, as do increasing numbers of judges in the lower courts. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be an inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know what the “original intent” of any particular provision was. Perhaps worst of all, though its supporters tout it as a politically neutral and objective method, originalist interpretation tends to disappear when its results fail to conform to modern conservative ideology.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The Rise of Originalism

Chapter 2: The Allure of Originalism

Chapter 3: The Epistemological Problem

Chapter 4: The Incoherence Problem

Chapter 5: The Abhorrence Problem

Chapter 6: The Modernity Problem

Chapter 7: The Hypocrisy Problem

Chapter 8: In Defense of Non-Originalism

Chapter 9: We Should Be Afraid

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-26848-3

OCLC:

1334887653