At Dorf on Law, Eric Segall: Of Originalism and the Emperor's New Clothes. From the introduction:
… Originalism is the Emperor's New Clothes of constitutional interpretation theories, and the justices are walking around with nothing but their modern sensibilities, values, and politics as the determiners of their personal legal preferences.
I have expressed ideas similar to the ones below in other pieces recently, but it cannot be emphasized and repeated enough that we live in a country where Republican Justices are in full control of an institution that promotes the values of the Republican Party and conservatives/economic-libertarians on the most important issues of our day. Originalism is currently being used by justices, academics, and pundits as the tool to hide partisan, ideological conservative judicial policy-making indistinguishable in method from the overly aggressive decisions of the Warren Court (albeit with a disturbing arc towards injustice instead of justice).
Here are a few of the far too many major examples that prove this point. …
UPDATE: Professor Segall has a further post on the Florida conference here: Originalism as Identity
Posted at 6:04 AM