Textual interpretation requires judges to reconstruct a provision’s original historical meaning.

Evidence

As our example illustrates, recurrence to the legal text means more than simply reading the words. The judge examines the text as an integrated whole, comparing and reconciling its various provisions, and clarifying its general language through analysis of the context in which the phrases appear. If the legal text was written at some time in the past, as is the case with the U.S. Constitution, the judge seeks to find the meaning that the words had at the time at which they were adopted. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2458

Categorization

• DEFINE: Lays out originalism as a method: read the text as an integrated whole and recover the meaning the words bore at adoption.
• XREF: Connects to the course’s focus on interpretation traditions — textualism/originalism versus living-constitution approaches to the Constitution.