How should the U.S. Constitution be interpreted? Ever since the Constitution was drafted in 1787, this question has provoked enduring debate. In the last half-century, one particular approach to constitutional interpretation has caused particularly heated disagreement: originalism. Originalists, who now command a majority on the Supreme Court, maintain that the Constitution should be interpreted today in accordance with the meaning it had at the time of its inception. As a result, no theory of constitutional interpretation affords history more weight or authority, an emphasis that has locked originalists and historians in debate over the relationship between legal interpretation and the methods of history. This seminar considers originalism and its discontents.
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