Supreme Court

Alito's 'Practical Originalism' Doesn't Sound Very Originalist

The conservative justice seems to favor the kind of results-oriented judging that originalists are supposed to oppose.

Damon Root | 10.8.2026 7:00 AM

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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recently took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal with an article adapted from his new book, So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court and Our Country. In the piece, Alito dubbed himself a "practical originalist" and a "working judicial originalist." But as he proceeded to actually detail his legal views, they sounded much more like the results-oriented "living constitutionalism" that originalists are supposed to oppose.

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Consider what Alito had to say about the landmark gun rights case McDonald v. Chicago (2010). At issue were two closely intertwined questions. First, does the Second Amendment........

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