Textualism

Textualism is an approach to interpreting laws and documents like the Constitution. It tries to understand the words in the document in the same way that the people who wrote it did. This means understanding the literal meaning of the words, rather than trying to figure out what the writers' intentions might have been or what someone today thinks the text should mean. For example, if the Constitution says you have the right to “freedom of speech”, textualism would say you have the right to say what you want without the government stopping you, but not the right to shout at people in the street without being arrested.