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In both cases, the Justice decides based on personal preferences or ideological agenda, but in one case the rationalization is based on cherrypicking snippets f
by jacobolus 6y ago
In both cases, the Justice decides based on personal preferences or ideological agenda, but in one case the rationalization is based on cherrypicking snippets from contemporaneous sources to speculate about what authors or supporters (of a statue, treaty, constitution, ...) originally meant long ago, and in the other case the rationalization is based on nitpicking the vocabulary and grammar of the document.
Both conveniently allow the Justice to pretend that their opinion is completely neutral/technical with no personal choice involved, even in cases where the justification is tendentious to an absurd extreme, and to attack those who disagree as radical unprincipled activists with no respect for the rule of law. They absolve the Justice from taking responsibility for the consequences of the decision.
Both originalism and textualism are easily shed by their adherents when insufficient originalist/textualist justification can be found for the desired decision, and following the obvious original intent and plain textual meaning of the statute would lead to an outcome the Justice dislikes.