A Symposium on Jonathan Gienapp's Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique

April 11, 2025

Yale Law School

Professor Jonathan Gienapp (Stanford History and Law School)—a leading legal and intellectual historian of early America—has become notable in recent years for a series of methodological and historical attacks on originalism as an approach to constitutional interpretation. His new book, Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique (Yale University Press, 2024), consolidates and expands upon his earlier writing, arguing that “recovering Founding-Era constitutionalism on its own terms fundamentally challenges originalists’ unspoken assumptions about the U.S. Constitution.”

This conference will celebrate Gienapp’s book, allowing both opponents and proponents of originalism to come together and consider the implications of its critique. The conference will also consider the significance of Gienapp’s work for the legal history of early America and for how History and Law should interact as disciplines more broadly.

Symposium Schedule

Opening Remarks

  • YJLH Executive Editors

Panel 1 (9:00-10:30) – Originalism, Interpretation, and the Court

  • Thomas Colby
  • Lawrence Lessig
  • Lawrence Solum
  • Moderator: Keith Whittington

Panel 2 (10:45-12:15) – Constitutionalism at the Founding

  • Mary Sarah Bilder
  • Mark Peterson
  • Stephen Sachs
  • William Ewald
  • Moderator: Claire Priest

Panel 3 (1:45-3:15) – Unwritten Constitutionalism and the Nature of the Union

  • Kevin C. Walsh
  • John Mikhail
  • Maggie Blackhawk
  • Moderator: Jack Balkin

Panel 4 (3:30-5:00) – Historians, Originalists, and the Politics of the Past

  • Reva Siegel
  • Cass R. Sunstein
  • Logan Sawyer
  • Moderator: John Witt

Closing Remarks (5:15-5:45)

  • Jonathan Gienapp

Theorizing the Judicial Process

October 24-25, 2024

Yale Law School

Top scholars from legal theory, the humanities, and the social sciences discuss the processes and procedures that empower and constrain judicial decision-making.

Symposium Schedule

Thursday, October 24

5:10 PM: Keynote Address, Marin K. Levy

Friday, October 25

10:10-11:30: Panel 1

Greg Antill: "The Role of Higher Order Evidence in Judicial Reasoning"

Pam Corley: "The United States Supreme Court and Lower Court Compliance"

Isaac May: "“Good Jurist, bad Christian”: Jerome Frank, Legal Realism, and the Separation of Religion and Judicial Reasoning"

Isaiah W. Ogren

Dan Svedberg: "Directly Observing the Efficacy of Threats and Suggestions During the Opinion Writing Process of the United States Supreme Court"

Moderated by Tom R. Tyler

1:10-2:30: Panel 2

Josh Chafetz: "Corruption and the Supreme Court"

Tim Johnson: "Understanding Supreme Court Decision Making Through Justices’ Personal Conference Notes: An Update on the SCOTUSNOTES Project"

Jessica A. Schoenherr: "It’s Not What You Do, It’s the Way that You Do It: Women’s Inclusion on the Supreme Court Bench and Bar"

Spencer Wells: "Disciplining Conscience: Judging Ecclesiastical Courts in the Early American Republic"

Moderated by Cristina Rodríguez

3:10-4:30: Panel 3

Maria Doerfler

Joshua Fischman

Bahman Khodadai: "The Theocratic Agency of the Iranian Legal System at the Legislative and Judicial Levels"

Moderated by Daniel Markovits