Definition of "originalism" []

• The belief that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted according to the intent of those who composed and adopted it. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "One of the rhetorical strengths of originalism is that it begins with a proposition most everyone agrees with (that the intent of the Framers is essential for understanding the meaning of the Constitution) and then cleverly moves on to determine what exactly “original intent” means with less discussion."
• "But to say that every legitimate constitutional scholar says that all of ‘Obamacare’ (e.g., the individual mandate) passes muster, assumes that originalism is not a legitimate form of constitutional interpretation."
• "If originalism is even a valid and legitimate mode of interpretation, how should it be done?"