Overview
- Justice Neil Gorsuch described the United States as a creedal nation on his book tour, stressing shared ideals over ancestry, and hard-right figures in the MAGA movement attacked the view.
- Political scientist Daniel Ruggles, writing in The Bulwark and cited by Alternet, says the backlash reveals a split on the right between MAGA nativists and constitutionalist conservatives.
- Gorsuch aligns with originalism, a legal approach that reads the Constitution by its original public meaning, which many on the Roberts Court also support.
- Ruggles argues originalists accept constitutional limits, while postliberal and nativist activists seek to recast the state with fewer guardrails.
- He adds that MAGA gained influence during the Trump presidency, yet originalists retain an edge on the federal bench, setting up a power struggle with long-term stakes for U.S. governance.