A Debt Against the Living: An Introduction to Originalism

✍ Scribed by Ilan Wurman

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 174
• Edition: Paperback
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that the earth belongs to the living. His letter to James Madison is often quoted for the proposition that we should not be bound to the 'dead hand of the past', suggesting that the Constitution should instead be interpreted as a living, breathing document. Less well-known is Madison's response, in which he said the improvements made by the dead - including the US Constitution - form a debt against the living, who benefit from them. In this illuminating book, Ilan Wurman introduces Madison's concept of originalism to a new generation and shows how it has shaped the US Supreme Court in ways that are expected to continue following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the theory's leading proponents. It should be read by anyone seeking a better understanding of originalism and its ongoing influence on the constitutional jurisprudence of the Supreme Court.

✦ Table of Contents

CONTENTS
Foreword by Michael W. McConnell. . . . . . . . . . . . page ix
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
part i preliminaries and language . . . . . . . . . 9
1 The Origins of Originalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2 The Meaning of Meaning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
part ii the original constitution . . . . . . . . 45
3 Constitutional Legitimacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4 The Founders on Founding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
5 Interpreting the Constitution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
part iii objections and recapitulation . . . . . 97
6 Lawyers as Historians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
7 Brown v. Board and Originalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
8 A Coda on Nonoriginalisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155