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By J. Joel Alicea
Mr. Alicea is a law professor at the Catholic University of America who specializes in constitutional theory.
When Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined the Supreme Court during President Trump’s first term, originalism found itself in an unfamiliar and challenging position.
All three of the court’s new members were avowed originalists, holding that judges ought to interpret the Constitution according to the meaning it had when it was ratified. As a result, a majority of the justices, including Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, now subscribed to this theory. Originalism, long seen as an insurgent force at the Supreme Court, had become its reigning philosophy.
