This is an important piece. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Originalism is the doctrine that proves the founders meant to authorize 21st century Republican governing priorities and nothing more.
Let's say you hate the welfare state, but realize it's far too popular and ingrained to be dislodged politically. You have to turn to the courts, which means you need to argue that the things you hate are all by sheer coincidence prohibited by the Constitution. Thus, originalism.
The problem is that in some cases there is actually a record of how the framers (of the Constitution or subsequent laws like the ACA) understood the text they themselves wrote.
What you need in circumstances like that is raw power in the form of jurists who don't care about appearing like sophists, who will strike down laws on "originalist" grounds, even when no such grounds exist. And that explains everything you need to know about the Trump-era GOP.
