{"id":4490,"date":"2026-07-14T11:07:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490"},"modified":"2026-07-14T11:07:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T11:07:30","slug":"feldman-the-supreme-courts-originalism-is-dead-dead-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490","title":{"rendered":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

The\u00a0Supreme Court\u00a0is destroying originalism in order to save it. In Trump v. Cook,\u00a0Chief Justice John Roberts, a supposed originalist, bypassed the theory in favor of a five-year-old doctrine known as \u201chistory and tradition.\u201d That allowed the court to preserve the independence of the\u00a0Federal Reserve\u00a0\u2014 even as, in a separate decision issued the same day, it invoked originalist principles to end the independence of all other federal agencies.<\/p>\n

Read more Horoscopes July 14, 2026: Jane Lynch, researching and making plans will ensure your success<\/a><\/p>\n

The whole point of originalism, as espoused by the late Justice\u00a0Antonin Scalia\u00a0and (in theory) the court\u2019s current conservatives, is that the meaning of the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0depends on what the public thought its words meant when it was ratified. The history and tradition doctrine, in contrast, allows the justices to look at real-world practices adopted in the 240 years since. They can ascribe some abstract principle to explain and justify those practices, then enshrine the principle as the meaning of the\u00a0Constitution.<\/p>\n

The reason the history and tradition test destroys originalism is that it ignores the originalist claim that the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0is not a living document but is, in the words of Scalia, \u201cdead, dead, dead.\u201d The reason the history and tradition method saves originalism is that it enables the conservative justices to avoid the outlandish results that would follow from their originalist philosophy if it were allowed to take effect in the real world.<\/p>\n

Market threats<\/h4>\n

The Fed\u00a0case is the most prominent example so far of how history and tradition destroy originalism to save it. Imagine that Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019 originalist dissent in the Fed case had prevailed. The court would have applied the theory of the unitary executive, which the conservatives claim to be a product of originalism.\u00a0The Fed\u00a0would then have been treated exactly like the other independent agencies and suffered an immediate death by judicial strangulation.<\/p>\n

The markets would have noticed that monetary policy was now in the hands of President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0and his successors, of whatever party or economic outlook. It\u2019s hard to say precisely what the effects would have been, but conventional wisdom suggests there would have been both short-term market effects and a long-term undermining of confidence in the US economy.<\/p>\n

Then maybe the whole world \u2014 not just constitutional lawyers like me \u2014 would conclude that originalism is a terrible way to organize the affairs of a modern economy. It\u2019s one thing to adhere to the abstract theory that a bunch of White men in the late-18th-century fixed the meaning of the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0for all time. It\u2019s quite another to actually go around trying to apply that theory by reversing centuries of economic knowledge and acquired experience.<\/p>\n

To put it bluntly, originalism itself might not have survived the disaster of abolishing Fed independence. History and tradition allowed Roberts to avoid it.<\/p>\n

His reasoning, roughly, was that the First and Second Banks of\u00a0the United States, which existed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were created by people of the Framers\u2019 generation (albeit after ratification), stood for the principle of the executive not making monetary policy. That abstract principle, he claimed, became a tradition that was renewed in the early 20th century by the creation of the Fed.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Never mind that the tradition was missing almost a century of our history. Never mind that the modern Fed operates very differently from its pre-modern predecessors. Once Roberts claimed the tradition justified the principle, he could reach the conclusion that, going forward, the Fed\u2019s independence must be sacrosanct.<\/p>\n

Read more Walters: Does crowning California\u2019s governor the education czar mean academic results will improve?<\/a><\/p>\n

Bypassing Bruen<\/h4>\n

To get there, Roberts invoked what has become the slogan (if not the rallying cry) of the history and tradition approach: the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0must not be \u201ctrapped in amber.\u201d Roberts knows that phrase well, because he wrote it. It comes from US v Rahimi, a gun-control case in which he led the conservatives in bypassing the consequences of Thomas\u2019s sweeping Second Amendment opinion in a 2022 case,\u00a0New York State Rifle and Pistol Association\u00a0v. Bruen. The Bruen case made it sound like the only allowable gun regulations were those that had existed in the 18th century. The Rahimi decision saved Bruen\u2019s originalism by reinterpreting it as a history and tradition principle that could be used to uphold a ban on domestic abusers owning guns.<\/p>\n

You can think of this distinctive use of history and tradition in two very different ways. If (like me) you have always considered originalism a crazy way to apply the\u00a0Constitution\u00a0to the circumstances of the modern world, then history and tradition is kind of great. It saves America from the idiocy of applying originalism across the board, while also undermining originalism\u2019s claimed intellectual credibility.<\/p>\n

At the same time, if (also like me) you believe that justices should be judged by the consistency of their opinions with their constitutional philosophy, it\u2019s hard not to be a little horrified by the hypocrisy of presenting history and tradition as though it were no different from originalism.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

To be clear, I\u2019m happy if history and tradition destroy originalism. In the long run, it heralds the death of that theory \u2014 and good riddance.<\/p>\n

The deeper truth is that originalism is a dissenters\u2019 philosophy, useful for berating the court\u2019s majority when it creates new constitutional rights out of whole cloth or otherwise makes things up as it goes along. But originalism is a terrible theory for a majority, because you can\u2019t run the country as a cosplay convention or a roadshow of Lin-Manuel Miranda\u2019s\u00a0Hamilton.<\/p>\n

So two cheers for history and tradition. It saved the Fed. It may yet save the rest of us from originalism. But let\u2019s not pretend that it is originalism.<\/p>\n

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. \u00a92026 Bloomberg. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Asking Eric: How honest do I have to be about my uncontrollable hunger?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Roberts led conservatives away from a strict framework because a modern nation cannot be ‘trapped in amber.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nFeldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Roberts led conservatives away from a strict framework because a modern nation cannot be 'trapped in amber.'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490\"},\"wordCount\":1016,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Opinion\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490\",\"name\":\"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=4490#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Next City Digest\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest","og_description":"John Roberts led conservatives away from a strict framework because a modern nation cannot be 'trapped in amber.'","og_url":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490","og_site_name":"Next City Digest","article_published_time":"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b"},"headline":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead","datePublished":"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490"},"wordCount":1016,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp","articleSection":["Opinion"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490","url":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490","name":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead - Next City Digest","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp","datePublished":"2026-07-14T11:07:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/02b7999ec512ab0cea105d3e9f1b78e1.webp","width":1024,"height":683},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4490#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Feldman: The Supreme Court\u2019s originalism is dead, dead, dead"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/","name":"Next City Digest","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/nextcitydigest.com"],"url":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}