Monday, February 13, 2017
Originalism and General Welfare
The unarguable familiarity of the Founding Fathers with Rousseau grounds the hypothesis that "general welfare", from the Preamble to the Constitution, reflects the inspiration of the term "general will" from the Social Contract. Now, Rousseau conceives 'general' as connoting a unity that is greater than the sum of its parts, a concept of General that is at odds with Bentham's. Accordingly, while the Benthamist Judicial philosophy that informs Originalist decisions, e. g. Citizens United, may not be un-Constitutional, Originalists do not have an exclusive claim on the intentions of the Founding Fathers.
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