A Debate on Common Good Originalism

The US Supreme Court's seminal 2020 decision, Bostock v. Clayton County, was a crisis moment for many originalists.  Relying on apparently originalist principles, Justice Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion concluded that sex in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 means "sexual orientation" as well as "gender identity."  In the decision's wake, several leading originalist scholars began to argue that traditional originalism (championed by the likes of Justice Scalia) had failed and that a new path forward in jurisprudence rooted in the natural law must be found.  One key voice in this debate, Josh Hammer, called this new path Common Good Originalism in an influential article in which he encouraged the move away from positivist originalism.  Proponents of traditional originalism see this move as dangerous and ultimately subversive of the rule of law.  Who's right?  Come and find out and decide for yourself.  Josh Hammer, a former law clerk to Judge Ho, and opinion writer for Newsweek, will argue in favor of Common Good Originalism.  Distinguished Research Scholar in Constitutional Law at the University of Dallas, Dr. Christopher Wolfe, will defend traditional originalism.