Document Type
Book Review
Publication Title
Texas Law Review
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
The Originalism Trap is a book for everyone—and it should be required reading for anyone trying to make sense of the seismic shifts in constitutional law on democracy, guns, and reproductive rights, even as the Constitution’s text has remained unchanged. Dennie’s sweeping and incisive defense of substantive due process raises a fundamental question: what better reflects democratic legitimacy—judicial doctrine shaped through decades of engagement between advocates, communities, judges, and lawmakers, or a narrow search through centuries-old texts for fragmented glimpses of “original public meaning” drawn from eras that excluded most people from citizenship, personhood, and power? Dennie forcefully answers: the former. The Originalism Trap insists that constitutional meaning belongs not just to courts or to the Framers, but to the people—and that reclaiming that authority is essential to any vision of a truly inclusive democracy.
Recommended Citation
Maureen A. Edobor, In Defense of Substantive Due Process, 104 Tex. L. Rev. 575 (2026) (reviewing Madiba K. Dennie, The Originalism Trap: How Extremists Stole the Constitution and How We the People Can Take It Back (2024)).