Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-915_8o6b.pdf
Page Number: 50.0

Cite as:  602 U. S. ____ (2024) 

15 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

examining table and scrutinized for its conformity to some
abstract  principle”  of  “adjudication  devised  by  this  Court. 
To the contrary, such traditions are themselves the stuff out
of which the Court’s principles are to be formed.  They are,
in  these  uncertain  areas,  the  very  points  of  reference  by 
which the legitimacy or illegitimacy of other practices is to 
be  figured  out.”  Rutan,  497  U. S.,  at  95–96  (Scalia,  J., 
dissenting) (emphasis in original).

As leading actors and theorists in the earliest and latest 
chapters  of  the  American  constitutional  story,  Madison,
Marshall, and Scalia made clear that courts should look to 
post-ratification  history  as  well  as  pre-ratification  history
to interpret vague constitutional text.

For  more  than  two  centuries—from  the  early  1800s  to 
this  case—this  Court  has  done  just  that.  The  Court  has 
repeatedly employed post-ratification history to determine 
the meaning of vague constitutional text.  Reliance on post-
ratification  history  “has  shaped  scores  of  Court  cases
spanning all domains of constitutional law, every era of the 
nation’s  history,  and  Justices  of  every  stripe.”    S.  Girgis, 
Living  Traditionalism,  98  N.  Y.  U.  L.  Rev.  1477,  1480 
(2023); see, e.g., Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. 
Community Financial Services Assn. of America, Ltd., 601 
U. S. 416, 441–445 (2024) (KAGAN, J., concurring); Trump 
v.  Anderson,  601  U. S.  100,  113–115  (2024)  (per curiam); 
Moore v. Harper, 600 U. S. 1, 22, 32–34 (2023); Kennedy v. 
Bremerton  School Dist., 597 U. S. 507, 535–536, 540–541, 
and n. 6 (2022); New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. 
Bruen, 597 U. S. 1, 35–37, 50–70 (2022); City of Austin v. 
Reagan  Nat.  Advertising  of  Austin,  LLC,  596  U. S.  61,  75 
(2022); Houston Community College System v. Wilson, 595 
U. S.  468,  474–477  (2022);  PennEast  Pipeline  Co.  v.  New 
Jersey,  594  U. S.  482,  494–497,  508  (2021);  TransUnion 
LLC  v.  Ramirez,  594  U. S.  413,  424–425,  432–434  (2021); 
Torres  v.  Madrid,  592  U. S.  306,  314  (2021);  Trump  v. 
Mazars USA, LLP, 591 U. S. 848, 858–862 (2020); Chiafalo