Welcome to the New Originalism: A Comment on Jack Balkin's Living Originalism
Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies, 2013
8 Pages Posted: 6 Apr 2013
Date Written: March 27, 2013
Abstract
In this short piece for a symposium on Jack Balkin's new book, Living Originalism, I welcome Jack Balkin into the originalist camp. I discuss how and why a nonoriginalist can become an originalist. By discussing how I eventually became an originalist at the end of the last century, I hope to shed some light on what exactly is so remarkable about Jack Balkin’s move. After discussing the appeal of the New Originalism that account for Balkin's originalist move, I conclude by offering a cautionary note about the use of "underlying principles in Balkin's "text and principle" approach, which in certain iterations can be indistinguishable from the old living constitutionalism that Balkin has put behind him.
Keywords: originalism, constitutional interpretation
JEL Classification: K00, K30, K39
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation