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Kennedy's criticism is dismissed without addressing his specific claims, for example: "Mr. Bork should also be rejected by the Senate because he stands for an extremist view of the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court that would have placed him outside the mainstream of American constitutional jurisprudence in the 1960s, let alone the 1980s. He opposed the Public Accommodations Civil Rights Act of 1964. He opposed the one-man one-vote decision of the Supreme Court the same year. He has said that the First Amendment applies only to political speech, not literature or works of art or scientific expression." [1] In fact, this criticism was confirmed during the hearings. [2] -- Forrest Johnson ( talk) 23:27, 24 October 2011 (UTC)
He's obviously used as the basis for one of the judges in the Simpsons. Are we allowed to put a Simpsons reference in here if it's properly cited? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.124.184 ( talk) 04:57, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
-Rentals No mention of how he rented Triumph of the Will all those times? That was the biggest issue in the nominating process! I'm mystified. (and I obviously don't know how to put this in the right place) Tleilaxu ( talk) 02:39, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
--The politics of Judge Bork's rejection for Supreme Court justice are also described from an ideological point of view, as I see it. There was unusually intense, unusually widespread public opposition to the nomination--not (or at least not primarily) because of liberal pressure groups, but primarily because the nominee's clearly stated views on major Constitutional issues were seen by millions of Americans as extreme and potentially threatening to fundamental American liberties. The article effectively characterizes the American public and an unusually large majority of the U.S. Senate as followers of liberal pressure groups. But such groups don't have the independent power to determine the outcome of a Senate vote. The contrary insinuation is, I think, part of the Right's phony representation of itself as some kind of persecuted minority--as if in some way, Bork had an inherent right to be on the Supreme Court, which was denied to him unfairly.
Apart from giving the Right an excuse for a lasting resentment, the major effect of the failed Bork nomination has been that prospective nominees for high court positions are now "vetted" more carefully, to make sure that no one can hold them responsible for their positions on any politically sensitive issues. That trend makes the hearing process go more smoothly, but it is not at all clear that the people's interests are being well served by it.
How the politics of the Bork nomination led to the debacle of Clarence Thomas' nomination and confirmation should certainly be discussed somewhere--perhaps on Clarence Thomas' page--though to do that without ideological slant would require a degree of detachment which I can scarcely imagine.
DSatz 22:42, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)
I am a conservative and this page, at least on first blush, seems fair to me. But, give me a little time...I'm sure I'll find SOMETHING wrong with it! lol!
Big Daddy
Ps So far...so good. I guess one point that could be made was that Bork was...er...Bork'd during the 'bad old days' of the news media, before Fox news and even before Limbaugh gained much of his clout.
So, in essence the PR job done on him by the left was not scrutinized as carefully in the media as it would be today.
Thus, the "unusually widespread public opposition" of the man, as described above by DSatz, may be more a function of the effectiveness of a left-leaning press unhindered by the countervaling efforts of Bill O'Reilly etc, than any actual nation wide concensus.
Big Daddy 05:03, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
The description of the joke leaves one with the impression that Robert Bork had fired Archibald Cox for an illegitimate reason when he did so upon Richard Nixon's order and only after Elliot Richardson convinced him not to resign in protest as Richardson had done. The encyclopedia gets it right on the "Saturday Night Massacre" page, it ought to get it right here.
People usually apologize for being wrong, so at least DSatz is honest about that. I doubt he is honest about remembering the Bork joke regarding the Saturday Night Massacre, but even if his memory is accurate it is irrelevant. Find a serious contemporaneous citation or leave it out.
Actually, just plain leave it out. Maybe such a reference would belong in a comprehensive history, but it not a significant fact about the subject, and the punch line is biased as pointed out in the comment “Bork” as verb above.
- On January 11, 2006 someone identified only by IP address (128.200.162.31) deleted the part of a posting of mine to which Rkevins82 was responding here. It had read in part: 'Many years before Judge Bork was ever nominated to the Supreme Court, a well known joke said that "borking" was "firing a man for doing exactly what he was hired to do" (i.e. Judge Bork had "borked" Archibald Cox, whose job had been to investigate criminal activities in the Nixon White House).'
Mr. Bork's justifications for his actions in the "Saturday Night Massacre" were greeted with quite some derision at the time. A humorous bumper sticker from the same time said, "Impeach the Cox-Sacker"--referring of course to President Nixon, but echoing a similar derision. Mr. Bork's willingness to carry out President Nixon's order, after others before him had resigned rather than do so, was seen as craven and shameful, and the joke that I paraphrased was one of the ways in which this was expressed. As I said, I can still remember from whom I first heard the joke (Wayne M., a salesman at the company where I was working as a programmer), where we were, etc.--and the teller of the joke wasn't even a "political person" as far as I knew; I think it was just a rueful reflection on the times. --best regards DSatz ( talk) 04:12, 7 May 2011 (UTC)
Innocent76 11:38, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Watching the nomination consent procedings you could see that Bork was eminently qualified judiciously to serve on the supreme court, and the question arrose as to if the majority of senators liked his legitmate expressed views And in this context the diatribes of Kennedy and others before and during the hearings do not seem appropriate for Judge confirmation hearings. Unless, of course if you like rough and tumble politics as a means of settling all decisions.WFPM WFPM ( talk) 01:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
Ironically, Robert H. Bork arguably borked judicial nominee Harriet Mier in an October 19, 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial where he states she lacks "the basic skills of persuasive argument and clear writing", is without "philosophy of judging", and "demonstrates absolutely no ability to write clearly and argue incisively." [3] 14:56, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca 10/20/05 Antoniosfca 15:59, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
I tried to be consistent with the definition currently listed as "to destroy a judicial nominee through a concerted attack on his character, background and philosophy." [1]
The definition does not identify, therefore not limit, who may 'bork'. Also although Robert H Bork may not be able to "destroy a judicial nominee" unilaterally, perhaps merely adding to the dialogue an opinion that may appear as an "attack on his character, background and philosophy" may be construed as 'borking'. My first entry to wikipedia, I hope my entry is consistent with the spirit and quality of this article to date. 14:56, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca 10/20/05 Antoniosfca 15:59, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
The section on Borking starts with this sentence: According to columnist William Safire, the first published use of bork as a verb was possibly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of August 20, 1987. Safire defines to bork by reference "to the way Democrats savaged Ronald Reagan's nominee, the Appeals Court judge Robert H. Bork, the year before." There's a mismatch here between the date given, and the final phrase the year before. Bork's nomination and rejection took place in 1987, so the Democrats didn't attack him "the year before" 1987. In fact, this date is two months before he was even rejected. I don't know if Safire is being quoted incorrectly or if he got his description wrong, but somebody with access to the source should check this out. — MiguelMunoz ( talk) 00:43, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
This section added to see examples and articles discussing its use. Also started off with some examples. 69.109.241.185 21:08, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
Examples where the term "Bork" is explicitly used as verb
"'Borking' of nominees" http://www.abanet.org/publiced/focus/spring05.pdf
"To Bork or to be Borked has become part of the American political lexicon, meaning to have your political enemies to attempt to destroy you personally simply to score political points." http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/natl_press_club_bork.pdf
"Part II: The Borking of Charles Pickering Alliance Activists Made Unfounded Racist Claims to Defeat Well-Qualified Judge" http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3759746770.pdf
"The 'borking' of Charles Pickering sadly stands as yet another example of how activist groups can derail the career of individuals who are eminently qualified to serve on the federal courts." http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3759746770.pdf
"He was 'Borked' because he was not afraid to provide truthful answers about his personal beliefs even though those beliefs would have no role in his work. Mr. Buttiglione was Borked because faith in Europe is only acceptable if it is politically correct." http://www.acton.org/press/pdf/2004-12-08_Gregg.pdf (European usage)
"... we sacrifice committed and worthy public servants if we allow witch hunts and Borking in the confirmation process." (European usage)
http://www.acton.org/press/pdf/2004-12-08_Gregg.pdf
"...we’ll end up with another Borking episode, or even another personal attack from the left as happened with Clarence Thomas."
http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"... no more 'Borking,' no more liberal lies." http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"Your Senators NEED to see how much support there is in the heartland of America for a strong conservative judicial nominee, so that Judge Roberts isn’t 'Borked.'” http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"The left is desperate and is field-testing its radical tactics for 'Borking' a nominee so thoroughly that the nomination is doomed."
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:xXfjaE_hjUcJ:www.nccsa.org/publications/UPDATE_2001/Jan_Feb_2001.pdf++borking,+OR+borked+filetype:pdf&hl=en&lr=lang_en
"[Daniel Pipes, a columnist] takes pride in being ... Borked by Edward Kennedy." http://www.danielpipes.org/bio.pdf
"groups ... say "we're going to Bork him." ... nothing short of character assassination; or ... the politics of personal destruction." http://frist.senate.gov/_files/042205JNAA.pdf
' "Maybe it will be Bork Borking [Miers]. ... calling her "a disaster on every level" and "a slap in the face" to conservatives. ... "no experience with constitutional law whatever," that it was wrong for W. to choose a justice simply to have a woman's perspective, and that conservative reaction veered between "disapproval and outrage"' http://www.law.umich.edu/library/news/topics/miers/nyt/troublewithharry.pdf
Articles discussing the use of the term "Bork" as a verb .
Article links from mediamatters.org added without distinguishing if they can or should be listed under examples section above. (No time at the moment).
69.109.241.185 00:56, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507190003
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507040001
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508080006
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507050002
http://slate.msn.com/id/2071902/
http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/01/13/topi_3.php
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/06/27/judges/?sid=1038664?x
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040307-104400-8439r.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/lord200505190823.asp
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04110503.html
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/borked.html
http://www.savethecourt.org/site/c.mwK0JbNTJrF/b.886561/k.6DB0/What_Borking_Really_Means.htm
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/21/rally/
I was not aware of this as the origin of the terms 'bork' (and it's past participle 'borked') Instead I was under the impression that it related to something being broken or non-functional possibly as a result of action from a separate party - e.g. "That latest upgrade totally borked my PC!", so does the term in that context have a connection to this topic, or it is perhaps an anagram of the almost word "broked"? SlySven ( talk) 23:27, 28 May 2017 (UTC)
Does anyone have a link to the Bork confirmation hearing transcripts? Mirror Vax 14:19, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/law/notconfirmed.html#bork as of today's date 15:05, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca
Antoniosfca 16:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
It might be worth clarifying the details about the subpoena, since there is a widespread "urban legend" about this: http://www.fair.org/extra/9904/bork.html (fairness and accuracy in reporting website)
its really unclear in this article WHY they were supoenaed and leaked, why it was controversial, how it was supposted to be problematic for him (the titles listed here are not exactly dangerous movies)
I don't know anything about Bork, but from this article I am left with the impression that he is racist. Isn't opposing the civil rights movement considered very controversial and racist today? Why would more than 40 senators vote for someone like that onto the Supreme Court? Or does he believe that whites should have given blacks rights on their own and not been forced to (because it is nowhere in the constitution)? 66.75.49.213 23:38, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
...I dont think it's fair to call him a racist. He thinks that the Warren Courts rulings on race were shoddily done. He has also written a mock ruling that would have given the same benifits as Brown v. Board, but follows a more strict constitutional interpretaion. I think it's more fair to say that he wants racial integration, but not by fiat, rather by changing law. 128.163.244.5 18:58, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
The article suggests that Bork intended to refuse Nixon's order to fire Cox, and intended to resign, but was persuaded by Richardson to stay on for the good of the department. That's not quite was Sussman wrote in the Great Cover-Up: "Bork... had told them that someone would certainly eventually be found to fire Cox, so he would do it and then resign. Richardson suggested that Bork fire Cox and stay on, as someone was needed to run the shop." And that's hardly the only diverging opinion on what exactly Bork said and thought at the time. I'd like to suggest that a little more work be put into that one. 21:24, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
According to Saturday Night Massacre Bork was "Solicitor General" when firing Cox. But according to this article he was "acting Attorney General". Can someone clarify?
At the time Cox was a special counsel, whose duties fell under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Justice.
As far as I know only the Attorney General-or in Bork's case, the acting Attorney General-had the capacity to fire him, although I could be mistaken.
Here's a link, which might clarify the details of that evening's events:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm
Ruthfulbarbarity 10:08, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
There didn't seem to be any discussion in the article about the "Saturday Night Massacre" about the contoversy over what Bork actually said or did. Is there an article where that's discussed outside of what's in this one? In any event, I think it should hardly be surprising that opponents of Bork when he was later nominated to the Supreme Court did not think of him fondly, whether that was justified or not. -Andy
I am an employee at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, MI and it appears that Bork now is a faculty member here.
I was a student at the University of Richmond School of Law in Richmond, Virginia. I can confirm he visited in fall of 2004. He co-taught a constitutional law course I was enrolled in with the dean of the law school. Erechtheus 23:59, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
The National Review article, at least the excerpt quoted at Reason magazine, advocates not just that the Supreme Court should allow censorship, but that legislatures should enact it. Unless User:Rkevins82 has access to the text of the article and can cite a quote to the opposite effect, I suggest we revert the first sentence to what it was before: In December 2005, Bork wrote an article in the periodical National Review calling for government censorship of popular culture, including television, film and music. since it's a stronger claim. Grover cleveland 08:25, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
An article in the GWU student newspaper Hatchet, claimed Robert Bork delivered a remarkably good imitation of Darth Vader at a Project for a New American Century dinner in October 2005 at Signatures restaurant in DC. The article claims a student working as a waiter heard the self-effacing Bork say "Luke, I am your father" to Lewis "Scooter'" Libby and received applause from Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Zalmay Khalilzad. Robert Bork has a warm and funny side, I'd love to see this article reflect at least a little of that. 207.180.184.211 23:06, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
WP:NOT#CHAT, WP:TALK 18:04, 24 August 2007 (UTC) |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
I was surprised to see no reference to a list of Supreme Court nominees whose appointments were subsequently rejected by the Senate or, further, whose nominations were withdrawn in the face of obvious issues of disqualifications or lack of qualifications. Maybe we need to start a list of those S.C. rejects, perhaps including a list of nominees whose appointments were confirmed but who, in retrospect, were mistakes. (A nominally subjective assessment, admittedly.) To me, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and perhaps Antonin Kennedy would qualify Ahh, but there's the rub. To lefties like YOU, Thomas, Alito, etc. qualify as SC mistakes...but to many others, like ME, radical socialist judges like Ruth B. Ginsburg and David Souter were/are abominations to the court, preaching an outdated, anti-Constitutional and activist-statist view on the courts and worsening America for it. A list of "worst SC appointees" would, by it's very definition, be NPOV, and therefore completely unsuitable to Wikipedia. -TROY
The suggestion that Ruth Bader Ginsberg and David Souter are somehow "radical socialists" made me laugh harder than I had in awhile. -- 68.188.91.24 18:00, 24 August 2007 (UTC) |
Chris: first of all, by itself, your personal opinion of John Dean is not a valid argument against using his FindLaw column as a source. Further, even if he is "no longer" a conservative, that doesn't automatically make him suspect - except in your personal opinion, which is irrelevant. However, it's now sourced by Time Magazine, so I would appreciate it if you would stop breaking wiki policy and stop reverting - you're now at the "edit war" limit, I believe. If you have any more comments about this factual quote of Judge Walton's, you should discuss them here, and not "protect" your hero by removing all possible facts that may be perceived as criticism. Info999 07:22, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Info999 14:17, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
This article seems to desperately avoid using the words controversial figure. Whatever your opinion of the man, he is the definition of a controversial figure. I am going to add this to the intro.
No one is going to remember the Yale Club lawsuit a dozen years from now. The discussion is decidedly unencyclopedic, of questionable notability, and violates WP:WEIGHT. I'd remove it myself, but whichever editor added the paragraph quoted me on the subject, so I raise on the talk page first pursuant to WP:SCOIC. THF 14:39, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
The article misrepresents Bork's reasoning in Dronenburg. 38.100.43.50 ( talk) 19:56, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
I disagree. It is fair to say that his opinion "criticize[s]" the Court's privacy cases. See Dronenburg v. Zech, 741 F.2d 1388, 1392 (D.C. Cir. 1984) ("It was not explained [in Griswold] how areas not lying within any 'penumbra' or 'zone of privacy' became part of a more general 'right of privacy. . . .'"); id. ("[Griswold] did not indicate what other activities might be protected by the new right of privacy and did not provide any guidance for reasoning about future claims laid under that right."); id. at 1395 ("Aside from listing prior holdings, the Court [in Roe v. Wade] provided no explanatory principle that informs a lower court how to reason about what is and what is not encompassed by the right of privacy."); id. at 1396 (noting that the Court's privacy right "formulations are not particularly helpful to us").
I just want to correct an error - My name is Cricket Farnsworth and I have nothing to do with the Yale Club - the article says I am the office manager there. i in fact work for the magazine that was holding the event. (i have no idea how to edit the page, or the time to learn how right now) Cricketfar ( talk) 23:02, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
A temporary subpage at User:Polbot/fjc/Robert Heron Bork was automatically created by a perl script, based on this article at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. The subpage should either be merged into this article, or moved and disambiguated. Polbot ( talk) 16:07, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
I added this section to explain why people like the National Organization for Women or other groups who opposed Bork's nomination would object. Also wanted to shed light on the fact that originalism or what conservatives would call "judicial activism" are choices that judges make. There are serious constitutional conflicts that stem from which interpretive rubrics the justices use to resolve constitutional questions. Some do believe that the extra-textual searching that originalists do is more legitimate than other approaches. This really opens a can of worms, however. It is possible that certain founders intended something that is completely at odds with the texts as written. One has to ask what the purpose of drafting and ratifying is. If the text itself doesn't have some elevated status above the separate thoughts and feelings of the drafters, then actually what we have is a constitution that is the combined works and recorded thoughts of the founders on the Constitution and all of its amendments. And one has no guidance about where to stop. In interpreting the First Amendment, do Madison's pre-war views on newspapers come into play? Views five years before the drafting? One year? If taken in its broadest sense, originalists could be combing through any recorded record of any of the drafters to determine their attitudes towards rights and constitutional provisions. And what if a drafter changed views several times? The Founders surely could not have intended that judges be required to dig through mountains of public and private writings to interpret the Constitution. If that were the case, the founders would have passed no constitution at all, but instead judges would infer everything the constitution represents through the collected writings and speeches of a select group of all-important people (the founders).
The actual words of the Constitution are only a tiny fraction of what originalists consider, and are only relevant to the extent that some founder or other talked about them separately. Practically speaking, that is what originalism represents. Any originalist has to grapple with these issues, and that is why a section on the problems with originalism is apropos here. -- MoebiusFlip ( talk) 11:08, 3 June 2009 (UTC)
A few comments here. First, Thomas Jefferson wrote
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times.... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Second, all too often, "judicial activism" means "a judge made a decision that I disagree with".
Third, I direct you to the Supreme Court decision of Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), which was about a woman in California who was growing marijuana for medicinal uses, which was legal under California law, but illegal under Federal law. She was not selling it, nor was she even giving it away, nor was it taken out of California. Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion against Raich, basing it on the Commerce Clause. Clarence Thomas dissented, saying
Respondent's local cultivation and consumption of marijuana is not "Commerce ... among the several States." Certainly no evidence from the founding suggests that "commerce" included the mere possession of a good or some personal activity that did not involve trade or exchange for value. In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession, and consumption of marijuana.
JHobson2 ( talk) 14:49, 21 April 2012 (UTC)
This article should definitely mention Bork's 1971 article in the Indiana Law Review titled "Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems". The Nation magazine picked up on this several years before Bork was nominated, and a pre-existing distaste for the conclusions of this article by a number of influential liberals was one of the main reasons why an instant firestorm of disapproval sprung up as soon as his name was revealed for the court nomination. While casting aspersions on Brown vs. Board of Education and Roe vs. Wade certainly didn't score any points with lefties, there was also a more basic disquiet with Bork's views on the first amendment revealed in the 1971 article. His statements that there was no right to freedom of artistic speech, only to freedom of speech for political purposes convinced many that Bork was eagerly itching to destroy significant parts of commonly-understood 1st amendment rights and protections. If Bork had firmly repudiated and apologized for the 1971 law journal article, then there was a significant chance that he might have been confirmed... AnonMoos ( talk) 19:39, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
Why does this article not include any mention of his flippant (inkblot) view of the Ninth Amendment? That was one of his most controversial statements. It belongs here.-- 222.152.93.87 ( talk) 11:35, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
I removed Bork from the University of Chicago alumni category. The University of Chicago Law School alumni category is a subcategory, therefore he should only be there and not in the parent category. The fact that he also is an undergrad alumni of the University of Chicago is not relevant.
People should be placed in the most relvenant category, and not in multiple ones. Thus, we put a person in American Roman Catholic priests and not also in American Roman Catholics. In virtually all cases they were an American Roman Catholic before they were a priest, and some may have been notable Catholics before they were priests, but we only put people in the most relevant categories.
If Bork had got his bachelors degree from the University of Chicago College of Social Sicences, and if there was a category for alumni of this college, we could put him in both that category and the Law School category, but as long as one category is the sub-category of another category used the article should be placed in only the most specific category. John Pack Lambert ( talk) 02:29, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
Why doesn't this article mention that he was a socialist in his youth? It seems to me that at one time it did, but evidently someone with a POV removed it because maybe they found it embarassing? Here's a decent source [13] (I believe) if anyone wishes to work this into the article. Shanoman ( talk) 07:56, 17 August 2010 (UTC) Most people are leftist in their youth. Most of us smarten up before we hit 30. 68.9.174.86 ( talk) 00:07, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
I know he endorsed him the first time around, but it still needs a citation, and it also needs one if he reiterated his endorsement. J390 ( talk) 00:41, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/12/19/robert-h-bork-1927-2012/ 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:15, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
I can only find one source 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:15, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
Well it hit HuffPost and NRO http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/robert-bork-dead-dies_n_2329553.html 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:35, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
Why does it say suicide in the article. There is not mention of suicide in the articles I've seen. Sille714 ( talk) 15:16, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Heron_Bork.jpg I am starting to upload a portrait collection for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, including that one of Bork. Linking it here in case anybody cares to use it in the article. Safiel ( talk) 02:00, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
The article asserts that Justice Powell was a “moderate.” He most certainly was not. He once expressed the view that a woman who had been raped by a burglar while her husband was in the house had not “sustained serious or lasting injury.” See Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 601 (1977) (Powell, J., concurring and dissenting). John Paul Parks ( talk) 18:17, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
Why is this the only judgment on the accuracy of Kennedy's comments? I mean, it's a judgment call, but Kennedy wasn't just pulling that stuff out of nowhere - they were uncharitable characterizations based on Bork's actual record. Here's Dave Weigel (who is not particularly liberal) on the subject from around the same time. john k ( talk) 00:45, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
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“ | In 1986 President Reagan considered nominating Bork to the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Burger retired. | ” |
Did Reagan consider:
I presume Reagan wanted to make two nominations by elevating a sitting Associate Justice to replace Burger because he felt that Democrats and moderate Republicans could have defeated a single nomination if they were focused enough on it. Is that correct?
Luokehao, 1 January 2021, 14:23 (UTC)
The second sentence in the lead says "A professor by training"
– what on earth is that supposed to mean? One can train to be many things (lawyer, surgeon, fighter pilot, probably lion tamer for all I know), but whether you interpret '
professor' as an academic rank, or in the looser American sense of someone who provides tertiary tuition, I've never heard of anyone training or being trained for either role. --
DoubleGrazing (
talk) 12:00, 27 October 2023 (UTC)
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Kennedy's criticism is dismissed without addressing his specific claims, for example: "Mr. Bork should also be rejected by the Senate because he stands for an extremist view of the Constitution and the role of the Supreme Court that would have placed him outside the mainstream of American constitutional jurisprudence in the 1960s, let alone the 1980s. He opposed the Public Accommodations Civil Rights Act of 1964. He opposed the one-man one-vote decision of the Supreme Court the same year. He has said that the First Amendment applies only to political speech, not literature or works of art or scientific expression." [1] In fact, this criticism was confirmed during the hearings. [2] -- Forrest Johnson ( talk) 23:27, 24 October 2011 (UTC)
He's obviously used as the basis for one of the judges in the Simpsons. Are we allowed to put a Simpsons reference in here if it's properly cited? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.242.124.184 ( talk) 04:57, 14 September 2008 (UTC)
-Rentals No mention of how he rented Triumph of the Will all those times? That was the biggest issue in the nominating process! I'm mystified. (and I obviously don't know how to put this in the right place) Tleilaxu ( talk) 02:39, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
--The politics of Judge Bork's rejection for Supreme Court justice are also described from an ideological point of view, as I see it. There was unusually intense, unusually widespread public opposition to the nomination--not (or at least not primarily) because of liberal pressure groups, but primarily because the nominee's clearly stated views on major Constitutional issues were seen by millions of Americans as extreme and potentially threatening to fundamental American liberties. The article effectively characterizes the American public and an unusually large majority of the U.S. Senate as followers of liberal pressure groups. But such groups don't have the independent power to determine the outcome of a Senate vote. The contrary insinuation is, I think, part of the Right's phony representation of itself as some kind of persecuted minority--as if in some way, Bork had an inherent right to be on the Supreme Court, which was denied to him unfairly.
Apart from giving the Right an excuse for a lasting resentment, the major effect of the failed Bork nomination has been that prospective nominees for high court positions are now "vetted" more carefully, to make sure that no one can hold them responsible for their positions on any politically sensitive issues. That trend makes the hearing process go more smoothly, but it is not at all clear that the people's interests are being well served by it.
How the politics of the Bork nomination led to the debacle of Clarence Thomas' nomination and confirmation should certainly be discussed somewhere--perhaps on Clarence Thomas' page--though to do that without ideological slant would require a degree of detachment which I can scarcely imagine.
DSatz 22:42, Dec 31, 2004 (UTC)
I am a conservative and this page, at least on first blush, seems fair to me. But, give me a little time...I'm sure I'll find SOMETHING wrong with it! lol!
Big Daddy
Ps So far...so good. I guess one point that could be made was that Bork was...er...Bork'd during the 'bad old days' of the news media, before Fox news and even before Limbaugh gained much of his clout.
So, in essence the PR job done on him by the left was not scrutinized as carefully in the media as it would be today.
Thus, the "unusually widespread public opposition" of the man, as described above by DSatz, may be more a function of the effectiveness of a left-leaning press unhindered by the countervaling efforts of Bill O'Reilly etc, than any actual nation wide concensus.
Big Daddy 05:03, 8 September 2005 (UTC)
The description of the joke leaves one with the impression that Robert Bork had fired Archibald Cox for an illegitimate reason when he did so upon Richard Nixon's order and only after Elliot Richardson convinced him not to resign in protest as Richardson had done. The encyclopedia gets it right on the "Saturday Night Massacre" page, it ought to get it right here.
People usually apologize for being wrong, so at least DSatz is honest about that. I doubt he is honest about remembering the Bork joke regarding the Saturday Night Massacre, but even if his memory is accurate it is irrelevant. Find a serious contemporaneous citation or leave it out.
Actually, just plain leave it out. Maybe such a reference would belong in a comprehensive history, but it not a significant fact about the subject, and the punch line is biased as pointed out in the comment “Bork” as verb above.
- On January 11, 2006 someone identified only by IP address (128.200.162.31) deleted the part of a posting of mine to which Rkevins82 was responding here. It had read in part: 'Many years before Judge Bork was ever nominated to the Supreme Court, a well known joke said that "borking" was "firing a man for doing exactly what he was hired to do" (i.e. Judge Bork had "borked" Archibald Cox, whose job had been to investigate criminal activities in the Nixon White House).'
Mr. Bork's justifications for his actions in the "Saturday Night Massacre" were greeted with quite some derision at the time. A humorous bumper sticker from the same time said, "Impeach the Cox-Sacker"--referring of course to President Nixon, but echoing a similar derision. Mr. Bork's willingness to carry out President Nixon's order, after others before him had resigned rather than do so, was seen as craven and shameful, and the joke that I paraphrased was one of the ways in which this was expressed. As I said, I can still remember from whom I first heard the joke (Wayne M., a salesman at the company where I was working as a programmer), where we were, etc.--and the teller of the joke wasn't even a "political person" as far as I knew; I think it was just a rueful reflection on the times. --best regards DSatz ( talk) 04:12, 7 May 2011 (UTC)
Innocent76 11:38, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
Watching the nomination consent procedings you could see that Bork was eminently qualified judiciously to serve on the supreme court, and the question arrose as to if the majority of senators liked his legitmate expressed views And in this context the diatribes of Kennedy and others before and during the hearings do not seem appropriate for Judge confirmation hearings. Unless, of course if you like rough and tumble politics as a means of settling all decisions.WFPM WFPM ( talk) 01:33, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
Ironically, Robert H. Bork arguably borked judicial nominee Harriet Mier in an October 19, 2005 Wall Street Journal editorial where he states she lacks "the basic skills of persuasive argument and clear writing", is without "philosophy of judging", and "demonstrates absolutely no ability to write clearly and argue incisively." [3] 14:56, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca 10/20/05 Antoniosfca 15:59, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
I tried to be consistent with the definition currently listed as "to destroy a judicial nominee through a concerted attack on his character, background and philosophy." [1]
The definition does not identify, therefore not limit, who may 'bork'. Also although Robert H Bork may not be able to "destroy a judicial nominee" unilaterally, perhaps merely adding to the dialogue an opinion that may appear as an "attack on his character, background and philosophy" may be construed as 'borking'. My first entry to wikipedia, I hope my entry is consistent with the spirit and quality of this article to date. 14:56, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca 10/20/05 Antoniosfca 15:59, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
The section on Borking starts with this sentence: According to columnist William Safire, the first published use of bork as a verb was possibly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of August 20, 1987. Safire defines to bork by reference "to the way Democrats savaged Ronald Reagan's nominee, the Appeals Court judge Robert H. Bork, the year before." There's a mismatch here between the date given, and the final phrase the year before. Bork's nomination and rejection took place in 1987, so the Democrats didn't attack him "the year before" 1987. In fact, this date is two months before he was even rejected. I don't know if Safire is being quoted incorrectly or if he got his description wrong, but somebody with access to the source should check this out. — MiguelMunoz ( talk) 00:43, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
This section added to see examples and articles discussing its use. Also started off with some examples. 69.109.241.185 21:08, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
Examples where the term "Bork" is explicitly used as verb
"'Borking' of nominees" http://www.abanet.org/publiced/focus/spring05.pdf
"To Bork or to be Borked has become part of the American political lexicon, meaning to have your political enemies to attempt to destroy you personally simply to score political points." http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/natl_press_club_bork.pdf
"Part II: The Borking of Charles Pickering Alliance Activists Made Unfounded Racist Claims to Defeat Well-Qualified Judge" http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3759746770.pdf
"The 'borking' of Charles Pickering sadly stands as yet another example of how activist groups can derail the career of individuals who are eminently qualified to serve on the federal courts." http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/x3759746770.pdf
"He was 'Borked' because he was not afraid to provide truthful answers about his personal beliefs even though those beliefs would have no role in his work. Mr. Buttiglione was Borked because faith in Europe is only acceptable if it is politically correct." http://www.acton.org/press/pdf/2004-12-08_Gregg.pdf (European usage)
"... we sacrifice committed and worthy public servants if we allow witch hunts and Borking in the confirmation process." (European usage)
http://www.acton.org/press/pdf/2004-12-08_Gregg.pdf
"...we’ll end up with another Borking episode, or even another personal attack from the left as happened with Clarence Thomas."
http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"... no more 'Borking,' no more liberal lies." http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"Your Senators NEED to see how much support there is in the heartland of America for a strong conservative judicial nominee, so that Judge Roberts isn’t 'Borked.'” http://rightmarch.com/media/supremecourt.pdf
"The left is desperate and is field-testing its radical tactics for 'Borking' a nominee so thoroughly that the nomination is doomed."
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:xXfjaE_hjUcJ:www.nccsa.org/publications/UPDATE_2001/Jan_Feb_2001.pdf++borking,+OR+borked+filetype:pdf&hl=en&lr=lang_en
"[Daniel Pipes, a columnist] takes pride in being ... Borked by Edward Kennedy." http://www.danielpipes.org/bio.pdf
"groups ... say "we're going to Bork him." ... nothing short of character assassination; or ... the politics of personal destruction." http://frist.senate.gov/_files/042205JNAA.pdf
' "Maybe it will be Bork Borking [Miers]. ... calling her "a disaster on every level" and "a slap in the face" to conservatives. ... "no experience with constitutional law whatever," that it was wrong for W. to choose a justice simply to have a woman's perspective, and that conservative reaction veered between "disapproval and outrage"' http://www.law.umich.edu/library/news/topics/miers/nyt/troublewithharry.pdf
Articles discussing the use of the term "Bork" as a verb .
Article links from mediamatters.org added without distinguishing if they can or should be listed under examples section above. (No time at the moment).
69.109.241.185 00:56, 24 October 2005 (UTC)
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507190003
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507040001
http://mediamatters.org/items/200508080006
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507050002
http://slate.msn.com/id/2071902/
http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/01/13/topi_3.php
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/06/27/judges/?sid=1038664?x
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040307-104400-8439r.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/lord200505190823.asp
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/nov/04110503.html
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/borked.html
http://www.savethecourt.org/site/c.mwK0JbNTJrF/b.886561/k.6DB0/What_Borking_Really_Means.htm
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/07/21/rally/
I was not aware of this as the origin of the terms 'bork' (and it's past participle 'borked') Instead I was under the impression that it related to something being broken or non-functional possibly as a result of action from a separate party - e.g. "That latest upgrade totally borked my PC!", so does the term in that context have a connection to this topic, or it is perhaps an anagram of the almost word "broked"? SlySven ( talk) 23:27, 28 May 2017 (UTC)
Does anyone have a link to the Bork confirmation hearing transcripts? Mirror Vax 14:19, 25 July 2005 (UTC)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/law/notconfirmed.html#bork as of today's date 15:05, 20 October 2005 (UTC) antoniosfca
Antoniosfca 16:00, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
It might be worth clarifying the details about the subpoena, since there is a widespread "urban legend" about this: http://www.fair.org/extra/9904/bork.html (fairness and accuracy in reporting website)
its really unclear in this article WHY they were supoenaed and leaked, why it was controversial, how it was supposted to be problematic for him (the titles listed here are not exactly dangerous movies)
I don't know anything about Bork, but from this article I am left with the impression that he is racist. Isn't opposing the civil rights movement considered very controversial and racist today? Why would more than 40 senators vote for someone like that onto the Supreme Court? Or does he believe that whites should have given blacks rights on their own and not been forced to (because it is nowhere in the constitution)? 66.75.49.213 23:38, 7 October 2005 (UTC)
...I dont think it's fair to call him a racist. He thinks that the Warren Courts rulings on race were shoddily done. He has also written a mock ruling that would have given the same benifits as Brown v. Board, but follows a more strict constitutional interpretaion. I think it's more fair to say that he wants racial integration, but not by fiat, rather by changing law. 128.163.244.5 18:58, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
The article suggests that Bork intended to refuse Nixon's order to fire Cox, and intended to resign, but was persuaded by Richardson to stay on for the good of the department. That's not quite was Sussman wrote in the Great Cover-Up: "Bork... had told them that someone would certainly eventually be found to fire Cox, so he would do it and then resign. Richardson suggested that Bork fire Cox and stay on, as someone was needed to run the shop." And that's hardly the only diverging opinion on what exactly Bork said and thought at the time. I'd like to suggest that a little more work be put into that one. 21:24, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
According to Saturday Night Massacre Bork was "Solicitor General" when firing Cox. But according to this article he was "acting Attorney General". Can someone clarify?
At the time Cox was a special counsel, whose duties fell under the jurisdiction of the Dept. of Justice.
As far as I know only the Attorney General-or in Bork's case, the acting Attorney General-had the capacity to fire him, although I could be mistaken.
Here's a link, which might clarify the details of that evening's events:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/articles/102173-2.htm
Ruthfulbarbarity 10:08, 29 July 2006 (UTC)
There didn't seem to be any discussion in the article about the "Saturday Night Massacre" about the contoversy over what Bork actually said or did. Is there an article where that's discussed outside of what's in this one? In any event, I think it should hardly be surprising that opponents of Bork when he was later nominated to the Supreme Court did not think of him fondly, whether that was justified or not. -Andy
I am an employee at Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor, MI and it appears that Bork now is a faculty member here.
I was a student at the University of Richmond School of Law in Richmond, Virginia. I can confirm he visited in fall of 2004. He co-taught a constitutional law course I was enrolled in with the dean of the law school. Erechtheus 23:59, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
The National Review article, at least the excerpt quoted at Reason magazine, advocates not just that the Supreme Court should allow censorship, but that legislatures should enact it. Unless User:Rkevins82 has access to the text of the article and can cite a quote to the opposite effect, I suggest we revert the first sentence to what it was before: In December 2005, Bork wrote an article in the periodical National Review calling for government censorship of popular culture, including television, film and music. since it's a stronger claim. Grover cleveland 08:25, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
An article in the GWU student newspaper Hatchet, claimed Robert Bork delivered a remarkably good imitation of Darth Vader at a Project for a New American Century dinner in October 2005 at Signatures restaurant in DC. The article claims a student working as a waiter heard the self-effacing Bork say "Luke, I am your father" to Lewis "Scooter'" Libby and received applause from Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and Zalmay Khalilzad. Robert Bork has a warm and funny side, I'd love to see this article reflect at least a little of that. 207.180.184.211 23:06, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
WP:NOT#CHAT, WP:TALK 18:04, 24 August 2007 (UTC) |
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The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it. |
I was surprised to see no reference to a list of Supreme Court nominees whose appointments were subsequently rejected by the Senate or, further, whose nominations were withdrawn in the face of obvious issues of disqualifications or lack of qualifications. Maybe we need to start a list of those S.C. rejects, perhaps including a list of nominees whose appointments were confirmed but who, in retrospect, were mistakes. (A nominally subjective assessment, admittedly.) To me, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and perhaps Antonin Kennedy would qualify Ahh, but there's the rub. To lefties like YOU, Thomas, Alito, etc. qualify as SC mistakes...but to many others, like ME, radical socialist judges like Ruth B. Ginsburg and David Souter were/are abominations to the court, preaching an outdated, anti-Constitutional and activist-statist view on the courts and worsening America for it. A list of "worst SC appointees" would, by it's very definition, be NPOV, and therefore completely unsuitable to Wikipedia. -TROY
The suggestion that Ruth Bader Ginsberg and David Souter are somehow "radical socialists" made me laugh harder than I had in awhile. -- 68.188.91.24 18:00, 24 August 2007 (UTC) |
Chris: first of all, by itself, your personal opinion of John Dean is not a valid argument against using his FindLaw column as a source. Further, even if he is "no longer" a conservative, that doesn't automatically make him suspect - except in your personal opinion, which is irrelevant. However, it's now sourced by Time Magazine, so I would appreciate it if you would stop breaking wiki policy and stop reverting - you're now at the "edit war" limit, I believe. If you have any more comments about this factual quote of Judge Walton's, you should discuss them here, and not "protect" your hero by removing all possible facts that may be perceived as criticism. Info999 07:22, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
Info999 14:17, 23 June 2007 (UTC)
This article seems to desperately avoid using the words controversial figure. Whatever your opinion of the man, he is the definition of a controversial figure. I am going to add this to the intro.
No one is going to remember the Yale Club lawsuit a dozen years from now. The discussion is decidedly unencyclopedic, of questionable notability, and violates WP:WEIGHT. I'd remove it myself, but whichever editor added the paragraph quoted me on the subject, so I raise on the talk page first pursuant to WP:SCOIC. THF 14:39, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
The article misrepresents Bork's reasoning in Dronenburg. 38.100.43.50 ( talk) 19:56, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
I disagree. It is fair to say that his opinion "criticize[s]" the Court's privacy cases. See Dronenburg v. Zech, 741 F.2d 1388, 1392 (D.C. Cir. 1984) ("It was not explained [in Griswold] how areas not lying within any 'penumbra' or 'zone of privacy' became part of a more general 'right of privacy. . . .'"); id. ("[Griswold] did not indicate what other activities might be protected by the new right of privacy and did not provide any guidance for reasoning about future claims laid under that right."); id. at 1395 ("Aside from listing prior holdings, the Court [in Roe v. Wade] provided no explanatory principle that informs a lower court how to reason about what is and what is not encompassed by the right of privacy."); id. at 1396 (noting that the Court's privacy right "formulations are not particularly helpful to us").
I just want to correct an error - My name is Cricket Farnsworth and I have nothing to do with the Yale Club - the article says I am the office manager there. i in fact work for the magazine that was holding the event. (i have no idea how to edit the page, or the time to learn how right now) Cricketfar ( talk) 23:02, 14 October 2008 (UTC)
A temporary subpage at User:Polbot/fjc/Robert Heron Bork was automatically created by a perl script, based on this article at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. The subpage should either be merged into this article, or moved and disambiguated. Polbot ( talk) 16:07, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
I added this section to explain why people like the National Organization for Women or other groups who opposed Bork's nomination would object. Also wanted to shed light on the fact that originalism or what conservatives would call "judicial activism" are choices that judges make. There are serious constitutional conflicts that stem from which interpretive rubrics the justices use to resolve constitutional questions. Some do believe that the extra-textual searching that originalists do is more legitimate than other approaches. This really opens a can of worms, however. It is possible that certain founders intended something that is completely at odds with the texts as written. One has to ask what the purpose of drafting and ratifying is. If the text itself doesn't have some elevated status above the separate thoughts and feelings of the drafters, then actually what we have is a constitution that is the combined works and recorded thoughts of the founders on the Constitution and all of its amendments. And one has no guidance about where to stop. In interpreting the First Amendment, do Madison's pre-war views on newspapers come into play? Views five years before the drafting? One year? If taken in its broadest sense, originalists could be combing through any recorded record of any of the drafters to determine their attitudes towards rights and constitutional provisions. And what if a drafter changed views several times? The Founders surely could not have intended that judges be required to dig through mountains of public and private writings to interpret the Constitution. If that were the case, the founders would have passed no constitution at all, but instead judges would infer everything the constitution represents through the collected writings and speeches of a select group of all-important people (the founders).
The actual words of the Constitution are only a tiny fraction of what originalists consider, and are only relevant to the extent that some founder or other talked about them separately. Practically speaking, that is what originalism represents. Any originalist has to grapple with these issues, and that is why a section on the problems with originalism is apropos here. -- MoebiusFlip ( talk) 11:08, 3 June 2009 (UTC)
A few comments here. First, Thomas Jefferson wrote
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times.... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Second, all too often, "judicial activism" means "a judge made a decision that I disagree with".
Third, I direct you to the Supreme Court decision of Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), which was about a woman in California who was growing marijuana for medicinal uses, which was legal under California law, but illegal under Federal law. She was not selling it, nor was she even giving it away, nor was it taken out of California. Antonin Scalia wrote an opinion against Raich, basing it on the Commerce Clause. Clarence Thomas dissented, saying
Respondent's local cultivation and consumption of marijuana is not "Commerce ... among the several States." Certainly no evidence from the founding suggests that "commerce" included the mere possession of a good or some personal activity that did not involve trade or exchange for value. In the early days of the Republic, it would have been unthinkable that Congress could prohibit the local cultivation, possession, and consumption of marijuana.
JHobson2 ( talk) 14:49, 21 April 2012 (UTC)
This article should definitely mention Bork's 1971 article in the Indiana Law Review titled "Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems". The Nation magazine picked up on this several years before Bork was nominated, and a pre-existing distaste for the conclusions of this article by a number of influential liberals was one of the main reasons why an instant firestorm of disapproval sprung up as soon as his name was revealed for the court nomination. While casting aspersions on Brown vs. Board of Education and Roe vs. Wade certainly didn't score any points with lefties, there was also a more basic disquiet with Bork's views on the first amendment revealed in the 1971 article. His statements that there was no right to freedom of artistic speech, only to freedom of speech for political purposes convinced many that Bork was eagerly itching to destroy significant parts of commonly-understood 1st amendment rights and protections. If Bork had firmly repudiated and apologized for the 1971 law journal article, then there was a significant chance that he might have been confirmed... AnonMoos ( talk) 19:39, 18 December 2009 (UTC)
Why does this article not include any mention of his flippant (inkblot) view of the Ninth Amendment? That was one of his most controversial statements. It belongs here.-- 222.152.93.87 ( talk) 11:35, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
I removed Bork from the University of Chicago alumni category. The University of Chicago Law School alumni category is a subcategory, therefore he should only be there and not in the parent category. The fact that he also is an undergrad alumni of the University of Chicago is not relevant.
People should be placed in the most relvenant category, and not in multiple ones. Thus, we put a person in American Roman Catholic priests and not also in American Roman Catholics. In virtually all cases they were an American Roman Catholic before they were a priest, and some may have been notable Catholics before they were priests, but we only put people in the most relevant categories.
If Bork had got his bachelors degree from the University of Chicago College of Social Sicences, and if there was a category for alumni of this college, we could put him in both that category and the Law School category, but as long as one category is the sub-category of another category used the article should be placed in only the most specific category. John Pack Lambert ( talk) 02:29, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
Why doesn't this article mention that he was a socialist in his youth? It seems to me that at one time it did, but evidently someone with a POV removed it because maybe they found it embarassing? Here's a decent source [13] (I believe) if anyone wishes to work this into the article. Shanoman ( talk) 07:56, 17 August 2010 (UTC) Most people are leftist in their youth. Most of us smarten up before we hit 30. 68.9.174.86 ( talk) 00:07, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
I know he endorsed him the first time around, but it still needs a citation, and it also needs one if he reiterated his endorsement. J390 ( talk) 00:41, 9 October 2011 (UTC)
http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/12/19/robert-h-bork-1927-2012/ 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:15, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
I can only find one source 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:15, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
Well it hit HuffPost and NRO http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/robert-bork-dead-dies_n_2329553.html 108.18.242.227 ( talk) 14:35, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
Why does it say suicide in the article. There is not mention of suicide in the articles I've seen. Sille714 ( talk) 15:16, 19 December 2012 (UTC)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Heron_Bork.jpg I am starting to upload a portrait collection for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, including that one of Bork. Linking it here in case anybody cares to use it in the article. Safiel ( talk) 02:00, 20 December 2012 (UTC)
The article asserts that Justice Powell was a “moderate.” He most certainly was not. He once expressed the view that a woman who had been raped by a burglar while her husband was in the house had not “sustained serious or lasting injury.” See Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584, 601 (1977) (Powell, J., concurring and dissenting). John Paul Parks ( talk) 18:17, 10 July 2013 (UTC)
Why is this the only judgment on the accuracy of Kennedy's comments? I mean, it's a judgment call, but Kennedy wasn't just pulling that stuff out of nowhere - they were uncharitable characterizations based on Bork's actual record. Here's Dave Weigel (who is not particularly liberal) on the subject from around the same time. john k ( talk) 00:45, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
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“ | In 1986 President Reagan considered nominating Bork to the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Burger retired. | ” |
Did Reagan consider:
I presume Reagan wanted to make two nominations by elevating a sitting Associate Justice to replace Burger because he felt that Democrats and moderate Republicans could have defeated a single nomination if they were focused enough on it. Is that correct?
Luokehao, 1 January 2021, 14:23 (UTC)
The second sentence in the lead says "A professor by training"
– what on earth is that supposed to mean? One can train to be many things (lawyer, surgeon, fighter pilot, probably lion tamer for all I know), but whether you interpret '
professor' as an academic rank, or in the looser American sense of someone who provides tertiary tuition, I've never heard of anyone training or being trained for either role. --
DoubleGrazing (
talk) 12:00, 27 October 2023 (UTC)