Monday, July 12, 2021

Democrat Hank Johnson claims that originalists read the Constitution based on race   Nicholas Rowan 3 hrs ago 
© Provided by Washington Examiner
Rep. Hank Johnson on Monday claimed that some originalist judges read the Constitution based on race.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing about diversity on the federal bench, the Georgia Democrat defined originalism as "white males interpreting the Constitution through the eyes of a white male who existed back when the Constitution was written." Johnson added that this school of thought was outmoded and dangerous for minorities who find themselves in court.

"It's scary to people who go to court, and all they see is white males on the bench," Johnson said.

Originalism is a school of textual interpretation whose adherents attempt to understand the Constitution as it was understood at the time when it was written. Since the 1980s, originalism has been associated with the legal conservative movement, but in recent decades, it has become the dominant school of thought in the Supreme Court and many circuit courts.

Originalism explicitly rejects race-based or identitarian readings of the Constitution. Since President Joe Biden has taken office, however, Democrats have claimed that former President Donald Trump used originalist judges as an excuse to keep the federal judiciary's composition overwhelmingly white and male.

Trump's three Supreme Court nominees, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, are all originalists, broadly speaking, and gave the term new notoriety.

But legal conservatives do not have a monopoly on originalism. One of former President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominees, Justice Elena Kagan, during her 2010 confirmation hearings, famously declared that "we are all originalists now."

Kagan, who does not identify as originalist herself, meant that the court has in recent years become more attentive to the actual text of the Constitution.

Original Author: Nicholas Rowan



2 comments:

Wingman said...

Hank Johnson is so stupid that he thinks an island will tip over if too many people go to one side.😂😂😂

Pappy said...

And it's people like this that are "RUNNING" (RUINING) the country....!!