Commentary Reporters and opinion writers often classify Supreme Court justices as “originalists,” “textualists,” or “strict constructionists.” And they often misuse those terms. For example, a Dec. 9 column in Slate treated all three terms as synonymous. That’s entirely wrong. This essay clarifies the three terms and how they interact. Strict Construction Strict construction is this: If a word or phrase has two possible meanings, then you apply the narrower one. Suppose you’re reading a document and see the word “vegetable.” Assume the document doesn’t make it clear whether the word refers only to vegetables like broccoli and cabbage or to all plants (as in “animal, vegetable, or mineral”). Strict construction dictates the narrower meaning—vegetables like broccoli and cabbage. Outside of criminal law, courts rarely employ strict construction today. Strict construction is also rare in textualism and originalism. Textualism “Textualism” means interpreting a document from the document’s words and structure. The …