Robert Bork

Robert Heron Bork (born March 1, 1927 in Pittsburgh) is a conservative American legal scholar and former judge who advocates the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork is a former Solicitor General and in 1987 he was was nominated for the position of Associate Justice on the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan, however his nomination was rejected by the Senate in a 58-42 vote.

Bork's texts on law typically are based on the Framers' original understanding of the United States Constitution, and in his texts he argues that constitutional text should be interpreted based on such understandings. He wrote of the result of what he considered loose interpretations of the Constitution: "We are increasingly governed not by law or elected representatives but by an unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable committee of lawyers applying no will but their own." Reiterating that it is the Court's task to adjudicate and not to "legislate from the bench," he has advocated that judges exercise restraint when authoring opinions and dissents. Bork's views have influenced the legal opinions of conservative judges such as Associate Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Bork began as a lawyer in private practice in 1954 and then was a professor at Yale Law School from 1962 to 1975 and 1977 to 1981. At Yale, he was best known for writing The Antitrust Paradox, a book in which he argued that consumers were often beneficiaries of corporate mergers and that, following this theory, antitrust laws should be interpreted to favor the interests of consumers. Bork's texts on antitrust law have influenced judges on the U.S. Supreme Court in their interpretations of such laws, as the Court has approached antitrust laws differently since the 1970s.

Term as Solicitor General and The Saturday Night Massacre

Bork served as Solicitor General in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1972 to 1977, and as acting Attorney General of the United States from 1973 to 1974. As Solicitor General, Bork argued several high profile cases before the Supreme Court in the 1970s, including 1974's Milliken v. Bradley, where Bork's brief on behalf of the State of Michigan was influential among the justices. As acting Attorney General, he is known for carrying out U.S. President Richard Nixon's order to fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox following Cox's request for tapes of Oval Office conversations. The firing incident is known as The "Saturday Night Massacre." Nixon's Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Richardson's Deputy Attorney General, William Ruckelshaus, resigned rather than carry out that order. Bork, next in line after Richardson and Ruckelshaus, became acting head of the Justice Department, and Nixon ordered him, too, to fire Cox. Bork considered resigning as well, but was persuaded by Richardson that this would leave the Department in chaos. Bork then complied with Nixon's order and fired Cox. He subsequently resumed his duties as Solicitor General.

Supreme Court nomination

Bork was a circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1982 to 1988, and was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to the Supreme Court in 1987. A hotly contested Senate debate over his nomination then ensued, partly fueled by strong opposition by civil and women's rights groups concerned with what they claimed was Bork's desire to roll back civil rights advances of the Warren and Burger courts.

Two dramatic events of the Senate debate were Senator Edward Kennedy's speech opposing Bork's nomination and the disclosure of Bork's video rental history. Within an hour of Bork's nomination to the Court, Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of it. "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, children could not be taught about evolution," said Kennedy. Kennedy's speech fueled widespread public skepticism of Bork's nomination. Others, including Bork himself, found the speech an egregious misrepresentation of his views. During debate over his nomination, Bork's video rental history was leaked to the press, which led to the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 being enacted. His video rental history included A Day at the Races, Ruthless People and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

To pro-abortion rights groups, Bork's originalist views and his belief that the Constitution does not contain a "right to privacy" were viewed as a clear signal that, should he become a Justice on the Supreme Court, he would vote to reverse the Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Accordingly, a large number of womens' groups mobilized to press for Bork's rejection, and the resulting 1987 Senate confirmation hearings became an intensely ideological battle. On October 23, 1987, the Senate rejected Bork's confirmation by a 58-42 vote. The vacant seat on the court to which Bork was nominated eventually went to Justice Anthony Kennedy.

The history of Bork's disputed nomination is still a lightning rod in the contentious debate over the limits of the "Advice and Consent of the Senate" that the U.S. Constitution requires for presidents' judicial nominees.

"Bork" as a verb

After Bork's confirmation hearing his name became shorthand for the rough treatment he received: to be borked is to have one's presidential appointment defeated in the Senate.

The most famous (or infamous) use of the verb to bork occurred in July 1991 at a conference of the National Organization for Women in New York City. Noted feminist Florence Kennedy addressed the conference on the importance of defeating the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. She said, "We're going to bork him." [1] Justice Thomas was subsequently confirmed.

By necessity, there is some question over who does the borking to whom; was Robert Bork "borked" ("the rough treatment he received"), or was Ronald Reagan "borked" (having his presidential nomination turned down); could NOW "bork" Clarence Thomas (meaning, to agitate for his defeat in the Senate), or could only the Senate "bork" Thomas (meaning, to defeat the nomination). For these reasons, the word has several meanings conditional on context.

Recent work

Following his failure to be confirmed, Bork became a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank. Bork is currently a lecturer at the University of Richmond law school. He has also written several books, including Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, in which he argues that the social revolution of the 1960s, which included the sexual revolution, the Civil Rights movement and the rise of feminism, led to a dangerous decline of American morality. He believes that it has eliminated ethical standards necessary for a civilized society and has instead led society to values which are inherently opposed to Western civilization, a view echoed by Pat Buchanan in The Death of the West. Bork also advocates a modification to the Constitution which would allow Congressional supermajorities to override Supreme Court decisions.

Bork converted to Catholicism in 2003.

Selected Writings

Bork, Robert H. (1993). The Antitrust Paradox. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0029044561.
Bork, Robert H. (1996). Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline. New York: ReganBoooks. ISBN 0060391634.
Bork, Robert H. (1997). The Tempting of America. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0684843374.
Bork, Robert H. (2003). Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute Press. ISBN 0844741620.
Bork, Robert H. (Ed.) (2005). A Country I Do Not Recognize: The Legal Assault On American Values. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. ISBN 0817946020.