Dean Erwin Chemerinsky Explains “Worse Than Nothing” During

Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles, California, Oct. 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Southwestern Law School celebrated Constitution Day 2022 by gathering to hear Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s riveting analysis of constitutional originalism, the view that the U.S. Constitution’s meaning is fixed, and why he believes that mode of constitutional interpretation is undesirable and dangerous. During the presentation, which focused on his new book, Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism, published by Yale University Press in September 2022, Dean Chemerinsky illustrated how the Supreme Court is poised to overturn long-held precedent.  

Dean Chemerinsky questioned the originalist premise that the only fundamental rights are those contained in the Constitution’s original text or within its original meaning. Under an originalist reading of the Constitution, rights considered by many to be basic to American life, including the right to marry, procreate, buy birth control, and refuse lifesaving medical treatment, cannot be justified because they are not included within the Constitution’s literal text. Accordingly, they are all in jeopardy. 

I was serious when I introduced Dean Chemerinsky as “the GOAT“ (greatest of all time) of constitutional law. Southwestern was fortunate to have such a brilliant and renowned scholar as our 2022 Constitution Day speaker. (Darby Dickerson — Southwestern’s President & Dean)

One of the most thought-provoking segments of Dean Chemerinsky’s talk occurred when he described originalism’s primary defect: evaluating contemporary issues based on a document created in the context of an agricultural slave society and the standards of the late 1700s. 

During the question-and-answer session, a student asked Dean Chemerinsky if he had any predictions for this term’s Supreme Court decisions. Dean Chemerinsky expressed the most concern about the outcome of Moore v. Harper.

In North Carolina,…