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Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Law
What Oaths Meant To The Framers’ Generation: A Preliminary Sketch, Steve Sheppard
What Oaths Meant To The Framers’ Generation: A Preliminary Sketch, Steve Sheppard
Steve Sheppard
To the Framers’ generation, oaths of office were understood as commitments, both public and personal, which stemmed from a source of morality. Recent discussions have raised concerns over whether or not the closing phrase in many oaths of office, “so help me God,” demonstrates a possible preference by the Framers for religious leaders and commitments to God. Oaths are not only an acceptance of an office itself, but also the acceptance of the office’s obligations. While oaths state an office’s obligations generally, the obligations include all that could be reasonably inferred from the nature of the office, including the use …
Selling Originalism, Jamal Greene
Selling Originalism, Jamal Greene
Faculty Scholarship
Justice Scalia has described an originalist approach to interpretation as a prerequisite to faithful application of a written Constitution. If, says he, constitutional judicial review is implicit in the notion that the Constitution is paramount law, as has been settled in this country at least since Marbury v. Madison, then that review must be guided by the ordinary tools of legislative interpretation. In a democracy, serious legislative interpretation requires that judges keep faith with the meaning of the text as understood at the time of enactment, not as desired by those judges or by anyone else who does not, …