Former Supreme Court Justice Breyer on the dangers of constitutional 'textualism'
This week on Trump's Trials, host Scott Detrow is joined by retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
In Breyer's new book Reading the Constitution: Why I Chose Pragmatism, Not Textualism, Breyer explains why he finds textualism's popularity troublesome.
Textualism is the legal theory that argues the correct way to interpret the Constitution and statutes is to read the text as it was understood at the time the documents were written. Pragmatism, the legal theory Breyer favors, takes current social and political context into consideration when formulating a legal opinion.
In Breyer's view…
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