At Legal Theory Blog, Lawrence Solum has posted a revised version of Legal Theory Lexicon: Originalism (see our prior post here). It remains the state-of-the-art summary of originalism's core views, set forth in readily understandable terms. An excerpt:
Originalism continues to evolve, and the lines of development sometimes converge, but it is fair to observe that originalism in the early years of the twenty-first century has several variations. "Original public meaning" is one focal point, and the distinction between "interpretation" and "construction" has gained widespread traction, but there are many points upon which originalists disagree. This leads to the question: does originalism have a core? One answer to this question focuses on the distinction between two dimensions of the debate about originalism. The first dimension is semantic: the semantic dimension of controversies about constitutional interpretation addresses the question, "What is the meaning of the constitutional text?" The second dimensions is normative: the normative dimension of debates about constitutional practice addresses the question: "How should constitutional actors (judges, other officials, and citizens) act once the meaning of the constitution has been determined?" If there is any core to contemporary originalism, it focuses on the semantic dimension. Almost all originalists agree that the semantic content of a given constitutional provision was fixed during the period of drafting and ratification. Some originalists believe that original intentions fixed the meaning; most contemporary originalists believe that "original public meaning" or "conventional semantic meaning" fixed the content. But (so far as I know) almost every originalist theorist would agree that the "linguistic meaning" or "semantic content" of a constitutional provision does not change.
Side note: it may be interesting to compare the Wikipedia entry for originalism (which I find a little confusing in places, but which relies prominently on Mike Rappaport in describing originalist methodology).
Posted at 6:20 AM