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Originalism Is Racism interrogates America’s unhealthy obsession with its founding generation by challenging the ascendancy of originalism as the preferred method of constitutional interpretation—both among the justices of the Supreme Court and for significant portions of the American public. The book argues that interpreting the Constitution in accordance with the original intentions or understandings of the founding generation necessarily enshrines and exacerbates racial inequality. For one, originalism perpetuates white supremacy by rejecting the equal human dignity of Black people and other racialized groups and denying them the opportunity to participate in public life on equal terms. It also undermines the abolition of racial oppression by subjecting Black, Brown, and Indigenous people to increased risks of violence and death. In a word, originalism is racism.
"In Originalism Is Racism, René Reyes pulls no punches and tells no lies. This highly readable book makes plain that originalism is far from an apolitical, neutral methodology for interpreting the Constitution—instead, it is a value-laden technique that maintains the nation's racial hierarchy. Everyone should read this book."—Khiara M. Bridges, author of Critical Race Theory: A Primer
“Reyes’s powerful challenge to contemporary originalist constitutional theory argues that the original Constitution and today’s conservative originalists perpetuate racial subordination. Against those who advocate for a ‘living originalism,’ Reyes offers the alternative of abolitionist constitutionalism that takes the elimination of racial subordination as the Constitution’s central goal.”—Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School