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   Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:32 JST Thomas Zimmer

   The “Originalist” Supreme Court vs Democracy
    
   As the Right is using “originalism” to re-impose a reactionary order on the country, I exchange letters with Madiba Dennie about the dangers of judicial supremacy – and how to get out of this trap
    
   Some thoughts from my new piece:
    
   🧵1/
    
   https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-originalist-supreme-court-vs

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:28 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     “Inclusive constitutionalism,” Madiba Dennie argues, “means that we should interpret the Constitution with the egalitarian and anti-subordination goals of the Reconstruction Amendments in mind.” High time we demand the Court take America’s Second Founding seriously. 16/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:28 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     “The Originalism Trap” is out today: It is a book written with wonderful clarity and great purpose. I hate having to keep up with the many ways in which the Supreme Court sabotages egalitarian democracy. I loved reading this book. 17/

     https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735353/the-originalism-trap-by-madiba-k-dennie/

     Bill repeated this.
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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:28 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     America can accept judicial review as it is defined by this Supreme Court majority – which really means: Reactionary judicial supremacy – or it can have true democracy and functioning governance. But not both.
      
     Please consider subscribing:
      
     https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-originalist-supreme-court-vs

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:29 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     Originalists talk a lot about “history and tradition” – yet from a historical perspective, what they are offering is complete bunk. It is an opportunistically deployed tool intended to generate whatever policy outcomes conservatives prefer. 12/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:29 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     Yet somehow, they got the legal establishment, mainstream political discourse, and liberal America to accept “originalism” as a coherent intellectual project and the dominant philosophy of constitutional interpretation - rather than the partisan instrument it clearly is. 13/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:29 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     As (small-d) democratic America – and Democratic leadership, especially – struggles to move past a mythologized understanding of the Court and come up with a counter to the reactionary Court majority’s assault, it can be really hard not to despair. 14/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:29 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     In this situation, Madiba Dennie’s new book “The Originalism Trap” makes an absolutely crucial intervention: It not only dissects the originalist creed and the political project behind it, but also charts a better way forward - towards “inclusive constitutionalism.” 15/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:30 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     Originalism’s trajectory mirrors a broader story of how the Right has been embracing an increasingly authoritarian form of minoritarianism: As “real America” is under siege, the Right has no more patience for “judicial restraint,” not even rhetorically. 9/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:30 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     If the “originalists” got what they wanted, what would America look like? “The endgame,” Madiba Dennie says, “would be a country where the people who have always had rights continue to have them and everyone else can fend for themselves.” 10/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:30 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     The reactionary political project seeks to turn the clock back to *before* the Reconstruction Amendments – to re-orient government towards privileging the rights of those already at the top, to deprive government of any tool that could serve to level discriminatory hierarchies. 11/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:31 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     They are trying to turn the clock back – as far back as to before the Reconstruction Amendments that were adopted after the Civil War – by repealing whatever racial and social progress they say is not in accordance with the Constitution’s “original public meaning.” 5/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:31 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     We start our conversation with the, excuse me, origin story of originalism: It rose in response to Brown v Board in 1954 – deployed by those who rejected integration, part of an attempt to delegitimize the idea of multiracial democracy from the beginning. 6/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:31 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     Originalism’s rise was part of a broader mobilization against the progressive changes of the 1950s and 60s – tied to the institutionalization of the conservative legal movement as well as the grassroots mobilization of rightwing activists. By the 90s, it had become dogma. 7/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:31 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     By the 2000s, originalism had morphed from a tool designed to function as a bulwark against the extension of rights to a sledgehammer working to dismantle existing rights and safeguards – all while vastly expanding the privileges of those in positions of power. 8/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:32 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     Over the weekend, Madiba and I talked about her book, the past and present of the Supreme Court, the role of the Reconstruction Amendments in American history, the rise of “originalism” since the 1950s, and the struggle to establish egalitarian democracy. 2/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:32 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     In a functioning system, citizens should be able to trust the institutions that are nominally tasked with upholding democracy. In America, the rightwing supermajority on the Supreme Court acts as the spearhead of a reactionary mobilization against multiracial pluralism. 3/

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     Thomas Zimmer (tzimmer_history@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 05-Jun-2024 06:20:32 JST Thomas Zimmer

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     In this crusade to entrench and maintain discriminatory hierarchies of race, gender, religion, and wealth, conservatives are deploying “originalism” as a key weapon to dismantle the civil rights order. 4/