I have to say though, originalism does seem to be a pretty dishonest doctrine. As I pointed out to Justice Scalia (!), originalism would not have ruled in favour of Brown in Brown v Board. (He responded by claiming that I was bringing out the ‘red rag’ of the living constitution movement, but that he probably – PROBABLY! – would have sided with the majority, but only because of the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment. Which is bullshit, because the 14th said nothing about segregation, and Plessy v Ferguson basically affirmed the view of that era that segregation was acceptable. You can only get the (correct) outcome that was the case in Brown v Board if you read these articles in the context of present-day standards of decency.) I don’t think there’s anything disingenuous (or bad) about arguing that society tends towards decency, and that courts should reflect this.

As an aside: I think it’s interesting how liberals often do their best to deny how liberal they (or someone they support) are, rather than saying “yes, they’re liberal, and that’s a good thing”. Maybe we all just need to be a bit more assertive?