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Clarence Thomas’s $267,230 R.V. and the Friend Who Financed It
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2023
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Thanks. I know very little about this stuff. My understanding is that there is an order to understand the law. Canons of construction, right? So wouldn't that mean that the intent behind the law can only be invoked if the text as written is open to multiple understanding? If that is the case how can they invoke that if the text can never be ambiguous?
If the text must only be looked at exactly as written you can't claim it could be ambiguous. If you can't claim it is ambiguous then you can't worry about what they really meant to say. Guess I am lost. It seems like they are arguing for a method that if fully applied would mean the method can't be applied.
What mistake am I making? Also thanks again.
You're looking for logical consistency where there isn't any. It's all made up.
There is no one right or wrong way to interpret law. For every canon of statutory construction, there is an equal and opposite canon. My textbook called them thrusts and parries.
Conservatives believe in a plain meaning approach: follow the literal text no matter what because the cold hard text is the best evidence of the legislative intent. If the result is obviously absurd and offensive to justice, too bad, it's the legislature's job to fix the statute, not the court's. Conservatives hate they idea of any power to do affirmative justice resting with the courts, they want it in Congress where their rich benefactors and buy congresspersons.
The problem with that is that legislatures are messy and words are imprecise. The words represent individual understandings and compromises of single members and caucuses, not the whole body. Even when Conservatives say they are following the original text / plain meaning, they are still doing subjective interpretation, just without admitting it.
Purposivism is the idea that statutes should be interpreted and applied by courts with reference to the purpose of the law and common sense.