'Originalism' — another word for the rule of law

Throughout the weeks leading up to Judge Neil Gorsuch's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the Left took aim at his "originalist" view of the law, the philosophy he candidly shares in common with the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

Liberal commentators have presented characteristically obtuse explanations of what "originalism" or "textualism" means. In the hearings, Democratic senators followed suit.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., asked whether, given the Constitution's use of the word "he" to describe the president, an originalist can believe that a woman could become president. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, grossly mischaracterized Scalia (who is no longer around to defend himself) in asking a question presumably written for her by a rabid staffer: "Do you agree with Justice Scalia's statements that originalism means that there is no protection for women or gays and lesbians under the equal-protection law because this was not the intent or the understanding of those who drafted the 14th Amendment in 1868?"

It would, in fact, be the opposite of originalism to interpret the law according to hidden racist or sexist ideas or intentions supposedly in the minds of its drafters. Gorsuch explained this to Feinstein in his reply, one of his most illuminating statements in the entire confirmation process.

"The point of originalism," Gorsuch explained patiently to Feinstein, "is to strive to understand what the words on the page mean. Not import words that come from us, but apply what you, the people's representative, the lawmakers, have done … I think that guarantee — equal protection of the laws guarantee in the 14th Amendment, that it took a civil war for this country to win — is maybe the most radical guarantee in all of the Constitution, and maybe in all of human history. It's a fantastic thing, and that's why it is chiseled in Vermont marble above the entrance to the Supreme Court of the United States."