Justice Alito: Constitution Should Be Read and Interpreted in the Eyes of ‘Originalism’

EXCERPT:

ALITO: "Well, originalism is a fancy term for reading the Constitution the way we customarily read all other legal documents and, in fact, many other documents. They have a meaning. And they mean what they meant on the day when they were created. In the case of the Constitution, the Constitution today still means what it meant when it was adopted in 1789 or when the Bill of Rights were adopted in 1791. Some people don't like that. They want the Constitution to mean whatever they want it to mean at a particular point in time. They want it to protect things that it doesn't protect. They want it to allow things that it doesn't allow. So that is originalism, and it is very important. Justice Scalia, Judge Bork, former Attorney General Ed Meese were really the founding fathers of originalism, and it has made great strides with the federal judiciary. It has even won some very prominent adherence in legal academia. I want it to succeed, and I think there is some danger that it will not succeed if it takes a wrong turn."