How Constitutional Theory Matters

Crosspost from Balkinization

Over the last quarter century, conservative intellectuals and opinion-makers have promoted their political agenda by (in part) tethering it to a family of constitutional modalities that, for the sake of convenience, we may place under a single surname: originalism. The originalism movement was born of a crisis of confidence on the right; it was part of a politics of backlash against the perceived excesses of the Warren and Burger Courts. Now, notwithstanding control of the White House and Congress, progressive intellectuals face their own crisis of confidence, and the question naturally arises: What will Our Originalism look like?