RIP Antonin Scalia

I think what Shaun Cassidy there is saying that if, as originally written, the Founding Fathers were wrong about blacks, women, people who rent to own, etc., how do you make the case that they must be right about guns or letting British soldiers crash at your house or anything?

 

Scalia wouldn't argue that they "must be right" about any of those things. That's not the basis of originalism.

 

What is the basis?

 

That it's the Law of the Land, and the Law of the Land is changed through the legislative, not the judicial, process.

 

Sorry. It was my understanding that the Supreme Court only selected cases in which they were deciding whether a law needed to be changed or thrown out.

 

Or law was misapplied.

 

What does that have to do with whether the Founding Fathers were "right" or not? It's absolutely immaterial, especially to originalism.

 

You give a fortune cookie definition of originalism and argue with everyone else.

I object.

 

I don't understand what the objection is.

The idea of originalism is not that the Founding Fathers were "right." It isn't even that it's the only way to interpret the Constitution, just that it's the best way, as Scalia himself has said countless times. Whether they were "right" is immaterial. It's a governing document. That's from whence it draws its authority. Not from whether it's "right" or not. If it is determined that it is "wrong," then it provides a specific process to amend it, which has been done on several occasions. That job rests with the legislative branch, not the judicial. Scalia is neutral on whether the Founding Fathers were "right." It's completely immaterial.

 

So originalists are going by the document and everyone else is just making stuff up?

 

No. They aren't "just making stuff up."

This post also has zero to do with the discussion at hand, which is that the originalists like Scalia think that the Founding Fathers were "right." They don't care if they were "right." They simply don't.

 

Do they care what the Founding Father's intent was in an way?

FYI, you still have not defined originalism. Your last post was just Scalia's opinion.