[coldtea]

It's not so clear cut to me (looking from outside).

It makes sense to interpret some cases in historical context and others not, because some cases are not as much affected by the difference in context.

That's not being machiavellian - that's avoiding an one size fits all approach.

[jghn]

This is true, but then one should be able to assume that the justice wouldn't neatly fall along partisan lines whenever they choose to be an originalist or not. When it always toggles on and off ever so conveniently along partisan boundaries, that's when it looks dubious.