Assignment #1_ Constitutional Interpreation

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Jun 18, 2024

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Mason Juergens B_LAW 210 Professor Bergstedt 5/12/24 Assignment 1 Constitutional Interpretation Opening Paragraph There are several different types of evaluation and judicial interpretation of the constitution. Some of these interpretations consist of; Textualism, Reviewing the history, Moral Reasoning and values, and Judicial precedent. This paper will include an explanation of each interpretation of the constitution and a concluding paragraph sharing which one I personally find to be the best approach. Textualism First off, Textualism. Textualism is an interpretation approach that's focal point is on the pure meaning of the text of the document (Murrill, 2018). This usually consists of understanding and looking at how words and phrases could have meant different things at the time they were written compared to the current state of time. Along with understanding the different means and possible different explanations. Reading and comparing the words inside the constitution helps with interpretation of the words and what the meaning behind them are. It can be found by those that use Textualism to understand the constitution believe that there is a major meaning and purpose behind the selected words chosen in the text of the constitution (Murrill, 2018). History and original meaning A second method to interpret the constitution is reviewing the history and original meaning of the constitution. A form of this method has been generally called Orginalinism (Murrill, 2018). The founding fathers intentionally wrote the constitution with the belief that it would last quite a long time with deep and intentional meanings (Hayward, 2020). Reviewing the constitution with the interpretation of its history and original meaning usually combines with agreement that the original meaning is still correct and holds power into today. It can be found that originalists agree that the constitution’s text had a public meaning at the time of the Founding that has not changed over time, and the task of judges and Justices is to construct this original meaning (Murrill, 2018). Moral reasoning and values Another way that the constitution is interpreted is through reviewing the moral reasoning and values. This is quite self explanatory in how this interpretation method involves using standard moral and ethical reasoning. Proponents of using moral or ethical reasoning as an approach for making sense of broad constitutional text, such as the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, argue that general moral principles

Mason Juergens B_LAW 210 Professor Bergstedt 5/12/24 underlie much of the text of the Constitution (Murrill, 2018). This method requires looking through the constitution with the intended value and purpose. Although this can be interpreted several different ways by people, it comes down to moral and ethics. This reasoning is called ethical reasoning and often called the ethos of the law (Murrill, 2018). Judicial Precedent Lastly, an additional practice of interpreting the constitution is Judicial Precedent. This practice requires reading the precedent (Classroom, 2018). The Judicial Precedent is the most commonly cited source of constitutional meaning in the Supreme Court’s prior decisions on questions regarding constitutional law (Murrill, 2018). For most, if not all Justices, judicial precedent provides possible principles, rules, or standards to govern judicial decisions in future cases with arguably similar facts (Murrill, 2018). The previous precedents that have been created over time that were decided because of interpretation of the constitution provide a way to interpret the constitution furthermore in how cases were decided. These are allowed to be used in the future to compare and help in supporting why a case should be decided and is closely connected because of the previous decisions being based on the constitution. Conclusion Personally I found the Moral Reasoning and Values approach to constitutional interpretation to be the best method. I came to this conclusion for a couple of reasons. I felt like the majority of the other methods focus too much on individual thoughts and findings, while moral reasoning and values take a much broader and connected approach. Textualism focuses too much on just the words and means now of those words. Originalism's focal point is overly connected to the past and doesn’t allow for the present day thoughts and changes in the world. Meanwhile, Judicial Precedent came in a close second due to how interconnected it is to the constitution. The con of Judicial Precedent was accepting the fact that certain precedents may have been possibly incorrectly decided. This would provide for a not correct interpretation and evaluation of the constitution. Overall I came to my decision of moral reasoning and values to be the best way to interpret the constitution due to its ability to find the overall meaning behind the constitution and the purpose ethically, instead of being stuck on certain constraints.

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