In the most indelible statement of his presidency, Bill Clinton said, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
In that succinct sentence, Clinton unintentionally summed up the ambiguity of the legal philosophy called textualism. Textualism has long been thought to be a twin to originalism, an intellectually rigorous means of limiting judicial activism and radical innovation from the bench.
A bid to cut the town of Falmouth's proposed police budget to fund a new diversity czar failed Monday night, as town officials instead scrambled to come up with another way to establish the new position in town government.
Falmouth, the second largest town on Cape Cod, has a representative town meeting for of government. That means voters at the annual town election choose members of Town Meeting to act as the legislature of the town – approving, among other things, budgets.
