The Yale Law Journal

Thomas R. Lee

Article

Judging Ordinary Meaning

Thomas R. Lee & Stephen C. Mouritsen

When we speak of ordinary meaning we are asking an empirical question—about the sense of a word or phrase that is most likely implicated in a given linguistic context. Linguists have developed computer-aided means of answering such questions. This Article proposes to import those methods into statut…

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Corpus Linguistics & Original Public Meaning: A New Tool To Make Originalism More Empirical

James C Phillips, Daniel M. Ortner, & Thomas R. Lee

Originalism has been the predominant interpretive methodology for constitutional meaning in American history: it is the methodology that has been with us since the Constitution’s birth. With its rebirth in the latter part of the twentieth century and its theoretical evolution from original intent to…