E241. The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Originalism, Old and New
This week we shake up the format a bit, and skip over our gratuitous whisky reviews and commentary on the top news stories of the week, and head straight in to the classroom for our long-postponed seminar on constitutional originalism, rightly understood. We do this by focusing in on four “mystery passages” about constitutional interpretation from prominent jurists, and ponder what are some obvious difficulties with these statements. Audiences are usually surprised at the big “reveal” of who said each of the four statements.
Bottom line: jurists need to think a lot harder about some basic questions of political philosophy. Curious listeners can find more background on the whole matter here and here, for starters.
Then at the end we save a few minutes to update last week’s news item about whether France is going to save America, and some personal reminiscences about Rush Limbaugh.
And not to worry: we still make time for a little whisky talk. I had the Glenfiddich Fire & Cane (pictured above), and Lucretia sampled the Glenfiddich 18-year old (left).