In recent years, textualism has taken center stage in discussions of legal interpretation. (As the term is used here, it includes both textualism in statutory interpretation and “public meaning” originalism in constitutional interpretation. (See section 4.2.) There is a lively debate between textualism on the one hand and intentionalism and purposivism on the other, including a debate about how and whether the opposing positions differ (see, e.g., Molot 2006; Manning 2006; 2011; Nelson 2005). This section examines intentionalism (including purposivism) and textualism more closely. It introduces several distinctions necessary to get clear about what the positions involve and raises important problems for the positions.