Recent Supreme Court decisions overturning Roe v. Wade and expanding gun rights in the U.S. have led some legal experts to declare the “triumph of originalism.”
The court’s opinions do, in fact, reflect originalist methodology to an important extent. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, a Second Amendment case, the majority opinion sought “the public understanding of the right to keep and bear arms in both 1791 and 1868.” And in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the majority examined whether the right to abortion is “rooted in our Nation’s history and tradition.”
