How historic? If someone writes a law today concerning “gay rights,” should I look for meaning from historic English?
Words change meaning over time. I don’t know why some people think original intent is an invalid method of interpreting a law when there is a disagreement of what the law means.
Like, “No, this is how the sentence was constructed. Let me go back several hundred years to interpret what this current law’s sentence construction means.”
All laws have plenty of text of the time. Congressional records were kept. We know what it means by the presentations in Congress by the people who wrote it. No need to try to weasel a new meaning on this one.