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Calling Bullsh*t On Justice Scalia's Originalism

Erwin Chemerinsky calls it like he sees it.

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Justice Antonin Scalia Gives Talk In Virginia

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Justice Scalia, perhaps the foremost champion of originalism, found in the Constitution robust protection for gun rights, no limit on prayer in public schools or at government events, no right to contraception or abortion, and a prohibition on affirmative action. All this, of course, is the modern Republican Party platform, not what those in 1787, 1791 or 1868 had in mind.

—Erwin Chemerinsky in his new book, “Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism.” Joel Cohen articulates in his book review how the Berkeley Law dean “makes a decision-by-decision analysis to explain how, he believes, the academic and judicial ‘originalists’, however you define them, have simply bastardized the doctrine.” Because it’s more than just a coinkidink that originalists’ interpretation lines up perfectly with the current GOP platform.

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