When I was in law school my class in Constitutional Law had the privilege of meeting with Hugo Black. He started the meeting by laying out the usual guidelines of such meetings and then proceeded to tell of us of his philosophy in reaching decisions. He then proceeded to answer our questions.
Hugo Black was known as a liberal but his philosophy was decidedly conservative. He was strongly opposed to big government and his decisions, if read with that in mind, reflected his dislike of big government.
Black was a former KKK, FDR Democrat. Very much against the usual pattern by judging as a conservative after having been appointed as a liberal.
But indeed he was an originalist, and thus a strong defender or our enumerated rights, as well as for limiting the judiciary strictly to the powers granted it—while giving great deference to the legislative branch.
It is not supposed to be the role of a USSC Justice to decide on some government principle he likes and the rule by that rather than by the Constitution and the laws presented before him—and indeed that’s not what Black did. I don’t see how this judgment fits with his record. (Though I will fess up to having only read the headlines on it yesterday.)