Timothy Sandefur (Goldwater Institute) has posted Originalism and the Illusions of Objectivity (Charleston Law Review vol. 19 (forthcoming, 2024)) (48 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article examines Originalism's entitlement to the status of an objective theory of law. It considers first what objectivity means in a legal context, then examines the two main claims of Originalism (semantic and normative). After seeing why neither of these satisfies the test of objectivity, it considers recent efforts by Originalist scholars to satisfy the objectivity test—efforts that reveal that their successes come about only at the cost of jettisoning Originalism's basic reliance on origin—a move called "stone soup"—which results in a theory that has no plausible claim to the title "Originalism."
Posted at 6:21 AM