Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism
While it would be a hasty generalization to say that all judges are either purely an originalist or a living constitutionalist, justice Scalia …show more content…
Scalia argues that the key to making a court democratic is by interpreting the Constitution according to the framers’ intent. Scalia writes, “words do have a limited range of meaning, and no interpretation that goes beyond that range is permissible” In other words, there are only so many ways to interpret a statute without going beyond what the legislature intended. In addition, Scalia addresses the concerns of critics when it comes to using ambiguous passages in the Constitution. Scalia replies by saying, “judges must do their best to figure out, first, the original meaning of laws and, second, the practical implications given new contexts for those original meanings.” To support that argument, Scalia cites the First Amendment