New in Civitas: “The Blue Tsunami Threatens To Drown Originalism”

The article argues that the 2026 midterm election has weakened the political support needed to advance the conservative legal movement and originalism. It says losses by Trump and his endorsed candidates, alongside defeats for conservative judges and officials in Republican-led states, threaten the movement’s influence over courts and legal policy.

The author says a Democratic Senate majority and unfavourable election maps could delay Republican confirmations of originalist judges until at least 2033, leaving a generation of potential judges without a path to office. The piece describes the relationship between conservative politics and legal advocacy as close but not automatic, and calls for a political reorientation to keep conservative lawyers in public office.