Amy Coney Barrett’s “originalism” is a thinly veiled ode to white supremacy
During Barrett’s supreme court nomination hearings last week, the judge was asked to clarify her declaration that she was an originalist. In her own words, she expanded on her definition, “I interpret the Constitution as a law. That I interpret its text as text, and I understand it to have the meaning that it had at the time people ratified it. That meaning doesn’t change over time.”
In short, she reads the Constitution literally. She does not see it as a living document that may grow, change, and amend over time. She sees it as a cemented declaration.
Author Dahlia Lithwick summed up Barrett’s interpretation succinctly in an article for Slate Magazine. She wrote, “Hiding behind ‘originalism’ allows Barrett…to repeat that law is a neutral science.” The law is inherently incapable of being neutral. It is created by humans, each of whom grow up with their own set of experiences based upon various factors included by not limited to their identifying gender, sexual orientation, race, economic status, country of origin, and language(s). The law is simply a reflection of the dominant societal beliefs of the time.
Without getting into the many details of who and what is left out by taking an originalist point of view, this belief ignores the most basic fact of natural life: that things are born, they mature, and then they die. Everything on this earth has a lifespan. We may all have different ideas of what happens after our earthly death, but we have agreed that our biological functions cease.
(Ok, maybe with the exception of those who believe that Walt Disney froze his body to be revived at a later date…)
In any case, I think it’s time to declare the Constitution as it was written in 1787 a dead document and make room for its modern replacement. From scientific discoveries to the technological advancements, the world is a drastically different place than it was more than 200 years ago. Our country is doing a disservice to our people by denying the reality of our own evolution.
For this very purpose, Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. This document acknowledges the prolonged suffering of Americans under British rule and sought to assert their right to establish a new government, later known as the United States of America.
He wrote:
“…Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive …it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…
Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…»
To learn more details about the men behind the U.S. Constitution, read this.
