In the context of United States constitutional interpretation, original meaning is the dominant form of the legal theory of originalism today. It was made popular by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and contends that the terms of the United States Constitution should be interpreted as meaning what they meant when they were ratified, which is to say, it asks the question: "What would a reasonable person living at the time of ratification have understood these words to mean?"
The theory stands in equal opposition to interpretivist theories such as original intent, and legal realist theories such as that of the Living Constitution.
Other articles related to "original meaning, meaning, original":
... During the original debate over the 14th Amendment Senator Jacob M ... Howard of Michigan—the sponsor of the Citizenship Clause—described the clause as having the same content, despite different wording, as the earlier Civil Rights Act of 1866, namely, that it excludes American Indians who maintain their tribal ties and "persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers." Others also agreed that the children of ambassadors and foreign ministers were to be excluded ...
... The original meaning of this term is "star" which referred to the small stars which were found as subdivisions on the horizontal bar of Tibetan and Chinese scales ...
... Anttilla have made contributions to the enquiry into the meaning of the word Indiges and on the original nature of the di indigetes ... the results obtained by Koch and pays more attention to the original nature of the di Indigetes ... identification with Aeneas and Romulus and thinks the original indigetes were naturalistic gods, forces like the sun, the earth and the waters which make the wheat and the children ...
... Testament in such a way as to retain the original meaning and audience ... Thus progressives, like traditionalists, place great emphasis on the original meaning and audience of the text ... revelation (such as the Old Testament) has an added or expanded meaning alongside the original meaning ...
Famous quotes containing the words meaning and/or original:
“Well may Mr. [David] Garrick be so celebrated, so universally admired—I had not any idea of so great a performer. Such ease! such vivacity in his manner! such grace in his motions! such fire and meaning in his eyes!—I could hardly believe he had studied a written part, for every word seemed uttered from the impulse of the moment. ... his voice—so clear, so melodious, yet so wonderfully various in its tones!”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“Revolution as an ideal concept always preserves the essential content of the original thought: sudden and lasting betterment.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)