A recent book from Donald Drakeman–The Hollow Core of Constitutional Theory: Why We Need the Framers–addresses a question that has troubled me for some time. As textualists torture text, and advocates of original public meaning go searching for what cannot be objectively ascertained, what was ever wrong with original intent? The originalist case against original intent, in brief, was that the personal intentions of legislators could not control the meaning of law. Allowing individual intentions to determine meaning for everyone was thought to be anti-republican. The solution was original public meaning, the search not for what the lawmaker meant but … Continue reading What Was Ever Wrong With Original Intent?