The justice’s recent talk to the Federalist Society elicited a lot of commentary, most of which was partisan dreck. John McGinnis listened more closely, and came away with some conclusions about the role Alito intends to play on the Supreme Court:
The distrust of abstract readings without context reflects Alito’s concern for recognizing the importance of tradition in law. Without the proper context of their time and place, and the legal rules by which they were interpreted, legal provisions can wrongly be read as abstract principles, and judges can then use those principles to transform society without the advantage of the slower process of democratic deliberation. Alito is announcing that he will be the opposite of an abstract originalist: an originalist who will instead read the original meaning of the Constitution informed by the traditions that gave rise to its provisions.