Commentary
Several Supreme Court justices—most consistently Clarence Thomas—describe themselves as “originalists.” In a prior Epoch Times column, I answered the question, “What is Originalism? I wrote:
“Although originalists disagree among themselves over some details, they share one core belief: The courts should read the U.S. Constitution much the same way they read other documents … understand[ing] a document the same way the document’s creators understood it.”
Without the discipline of originalism, judges can, and do, inject their own preferences into the Constitution. In other words, they become unelected lawmakers.
Occasionally we are not certain about the exact meaning of a constitutional phrase. In such cases, even originalist judges must exercise discretion. But that discretion is narrower than the free rein assumed by non-originalist judges….