The Pernicious Originalist Hoax

The “originalist” view of judicial; thought, put forth ay Scalia and embraced by Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas, is nothing more than a deliberate sham designed to try to provide cover for conservative ideological bias in judicial rulings. That bias is easily exposed by any thinking person with knowledge in social sciences.

The originalist position states that we must interpret the U. S. Constitution in the language which was used at the time of its writing and that those original meanings are written in stone and must not be altered . That stance creates multiple serious problems

In order to interpret the words of constitutional provisions exactly as used in the late 1700s. one would have to be an expert in the linguistics and culture of those times. None of our federal judges have such expertise. As an example, our Republican Supreme Court judges interpret the Second Amendment as though it means that all people have the right to carry any loaded gun with them on our street at any time, and that the amendment authorizes private militias.

That interpretation is false. “The right to keep and bear arms” at the time of the writing of the amendment meant the right to be a part of a local, regional or state authorized force – not to strut around toting guns. Further the amendment called for well-regulated militias, that is militias organized by and controlled by local, regional, and state governments. These false interpretations have resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of American lives every year in the present. And the Supreme Court judges who have ruling falsely on gun control bear responsibility for that loss of life.

Next, the originalist hoax is basically saying that the founders did it right the first time and we dare not change what they did. That stance I can think of no instance in human history when a group of human beings did anything perfectly the first time they tried. is either pure ignorance or deliberate falsehood. Further, any person who knows his or her history understands that the U.S. Constitution was simple the best compromise when would be accepted by the 13 by the 13 states or colonies. They all knew that it was not perfect and that it would need to be changed over time. Thomas Jefferson even write that a new constitution should be written every 19 to 20 years as cultures and technologies change over time. If let the huckster originalists continue to ignore these facts, we do so at our -- and our nation’s -- peril.

In short, we must either shame these judges acting on political ideology instead of facts, logic and real jurisprudence into acting truly on behalf of our nation and citizens, or we must expand the court and limit term of office, as well as developing and enforcing a code of ethics for them.