Re:Show HN: I Rebuilt MySpace from 2007
by FactolSarin on Sunday November 29, 2020 @07:16PM
(#25249428)
There's two ways to interpret the constitution: the honest way, and the way where you pretend that not only were the Founders of one mind on what the Constitution meant, but also that you can read that mind two and a half centuries later.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Show HN: I Rebuilt MySpace from 2007
by dragonwriter on Sunday November 29, 2020 @07:53PM
(#25249669)
So, you are saying that textualist originalism, like Scalias, is the honest way, whereas intentionalist originalism is dishonest?
(And, yeah, there's actually more than two ways to interpret the Constituion.)
Not the OP, but of those two, I certainly agree textualism is more "honest". I don't see how you could ever divine a singular true intent behind a compromise of hundreds of divergent minds.
Re:Show HN: I Rebuilt MySpace from 2007
by dragonwriter on Tuesday December 01, 2020 @06:43PM
(#25271569)
"Textualism" requires divining a single true meaning as interpreted by some not-well-specified group contemporary to the writing, instead of doing so for the at least somewhat-well-specified group of people adopting the measure required for "intentionalism".
(I think both forms of originalism are useful and important interpretive lenses, but I think taking either as universally decisive or even mistaking either for a decidable objective standard is deeply problematic.)