Scott D. Gerber (Ohio Northern University – Pettit College of Law) has posted Liberal Originalism in Connecticut Constitutional Interpretation (Quinnipiac Law Review, forthcoming) (36 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This Article is my contribution to a Quinnipiac Law Review symposium about the history of the Connecticut constitution. The first part of the Article explains what liberal originalism is. The second section chronicles the “higher law” background of colonial Connecticut. The third portion describes Connecticut’s profound commitment to the Declaration of Independence. The fourth segment assesses the draft U.S. Bill of Rights written in the hand of Connecticut’s own Roger Sherman. The conclusion maintains that a liberal originalist approach to interpreting the Connecticut constitution is preferable to the less generous approach to deciding individual rights cases articulated by the Connecticut Supreme Court in State v. Geisler (1992).
The author uses "liberal originalism" in a different way from the colloquial usage that sometimes appears on this blog and elsewhere. As he explains in the article, "'Liberal originalism' … maintains that the original intent of the Founders was that the Constitution be interpreted in light of the Lockean natural rights political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence." See his book To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation.
Posted at 6:05 AM