Philosophy 499
Study questions: Dworkin's Comment, Scalia's response
1. Dworkin seems to praise Scalia for his "textualist" approach to
legal interpretation; however,
Dworkin thinks that Scalia misapplies
this approach. How does Dworkin explain and
defend this claim? How does Dworkin
criticize Scalia's interpretation of the 1st, 8th, and
14th Amendments? How does Dworkin
himself interpret these amendments? How does
this illustrate textualism?
2. How does Scalia address these criticisms? In particular, how
does he defend his
Interpretaiton of the 1st and 8th Amendments
as consistent with textualism? How does
he respond to Dworkin's other criticisms?
3. In light of this debate, what do you think is the more plausible
view of the way in which
"textualism" applies to constitutional
interpretation? What are the main worries that
will arise for this view, and how might
we address those worries?