Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism

Berkeley Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky
talks with Doug Mishkin
about his new book:

Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern

Online via Zoom
Free and Open to All

In his new book, Berkeley Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky deconstructs the so-called “originalist” method that several Supreme Court justices now invoke in attempting to interpret the Constitution according to its purported “original meaning.” Professor Chemerinsky writes that “[o]riginalism is not an interpretive theory at all. It is just the rhetoric conservative justices use to make it seem that they are not imposing their own values, when they are doing exactly that….[O]riginalism is an emperor with no clothes.”

Professor Chemerinsky explains in language accessible to lawyers and non-lawyers the background and allure of “originalism,” and then exposes, chapter by chapter, why original intent or meaning ordinarily is an illusion, why “originalism” is incoherent, how it fails to account for modernity and how its proponents are hypocritical in its application. He concludes by defending “non-originalism” and then sounding the alarm of why “non-originalists” should be afraid of so-called “originalism.”

Professor Chemerinsky is the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law and Dean of the Berkeley Law School, University of California at Berkeley. Prior to assuming this position he was the founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and a professor at Duke Law School, University of Southern California Law School, and DePaul Law School.  He is the author of 15 books and over 200 law review articles. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. In 2022, he was the President of the Association of American Law Schools.