Constitutional Interpretation and Originalism Today

Session Submission Type: In-Person Roundtable

Session Description

Originalism, once simply rejected by most legal commentators, is now more influential (especially due to the efforts of Supreme Court justices such as Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas), to the point where legal scholars on the left are employing it (selectively), and some have even maintained that “we are all originalists now.” In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) Justice Neil Gorsuch provided a “textualist” fifth vote for a radical extension of the Civil Rights Acts' prohibition of discrimination based on "sex." So: what is the state of originalism today?

Sub Unit

• Related Groups / American Public Philosophy Institute

Chairs

• Christopher Wolfe University of Dallas

• Daniel Burns

Presenters

• Justin B. Dyer University of Missouri, Columbia

• James R. Stoner Louisiana State University

• Carson L. Holloway University of Nebraska, Omaha

• Christopher Wolfe University of Dallas