Statistically Significant Judging: Mechanizing Originalism Through Corpus Linguistics and AI
In interpreting the U.S. Constitution, accuracy, transparency, and replicability are increasingly important. A recent poll showed that most Americans believe that United States Supreme Court Justices sacrifice impartiality for ideology. Footnote #1 content: Thomas Beaumont & Linley Sanders, New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Believe Supreme Court Justices Put Ideology over Impartiality, PBS NEWS (June 27, 2024, 10:11 AM), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/new-poll-shows-majority-of-americans-believe-supreme-court-justices-put-ideology-over-impartiality [https://perma.cc/YAC8-WVPW]. That is particularly problematic when a shocking number of Americans “know literally nothing about the Constitution.” Footnote #2 content: Chris Cillizza, Americans Know Literally Nothing About the Constitution, CNN (Sept. 13, 2017, 4:39 PM), https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/13/politics/poll-constitution/index.html [https://perma.cc/724Y-2SP2]. For example, one in three people cannot name a single First Amendment right. Footnote #3 content: Id. So, many Americans do not know—and most Americans do not trust SCOTUS to truthfully tell them—what is in this country’s most important governing document. Instead of grounding linguistic interpretation in high-minded, lofty reasoning, many judges now seek to use what lay people understand: numbers.
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