Source: Washington Post
by George F Will
“Although Barrett is preternaturally nice, she irritates some people. The reason she does makes her an exemplary justice. It is her fastidious acknowledgment that certainty and precision are often elusive when construing, as an originalist, the Constitution’s text (‘due’ process, ‘unreasonable’ searches, ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments, etc.) in modern contexts. Awareness of uncertainties justifies judicious restraint: The duty to construe texts does not empower judges to try to discover — or guess — the purposes or intentions of those who wrote the words.” (09/26/25)