bork verb
obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) by systematically defaming or vilifying them
What else did Bork do?
He crusaded against liberalism, blaming it for every conceivable ill that plagued the nation, with an astonishingly religious slant for a jurist. He frowned upon premarital sex, working mothers and bemoaned the moral decadence he attributed to the Left’s embrace of egalitarianism and individualism. His book Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline will probably gain posthumous acclaim, especially since it espouses many Tea Partiers’ vision of what America should be.
[It is $0.01, used, at Amazon. So grab it, Tea Partiers]
So was Kennedy wrong to, er, bork him like that?
He further argued that the government could (and should) regulate culture, and engage in its “censorship.” That it could ban homosexual behavior or specific instruction in schools. An example of such was his opposition to Meyer v. Nebraska, in which the Supreme Court overturned a ban on the use of the German language in a private school. In 1919, following the First World War, anything German was evil. Bork opined that if the state wanted to ban the use of German, it could do so.
But here’s one that would have left the modern conservative angry. Bork firmly believed that the second amendment did not grant an individual right to bear arms. He said "I'm not an expert on the second amendment, but its intent was to guarantee the right of states to form militia, not for individuals to bear arms [and] assault weapons could be banned under the Constitution [by states],” and when asked whether his statement would apply to all gun control, he responded "Probably, it doesn't mean it's a great idea. It's probably constitutional." The NRA naturally distanced themselves from him.
That last sentiment, where he opines simultaneously that gun control is a bad idea but nevertheless constitutional, is what his supporters cite to refute Kennedy's portrayal: while his personal views on issues differed, he'd have been an impartial jurist; one that would have adhered to the Constitution.
His originalist opinions of the Constitution aside, he also gained notoriety for his role in President Nixon’s "Saturday Night Massacre". Nixon wanted to fire the independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed to investigate the Watergate scandal, but ran into problems when his own Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus both resigned rather than fire Cox.
Bork then did the needful as Nixon’s Solicitor General and acting head of the DOJ. The perceived abuse of presidential power by Nixon, and Bork’s role also weighed heavily at his confirmation process.
His originalist opinions of the Constitution aside, he also gained notoriety for his role in President Nixon’s "Saturday Night Massacre". Nixon wanted to fire the independent special prosecutor Archibald Cox appointed to investigate the Watergate scandal, but ran into problems when his own Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy William Ruckelshaus both resigned rather than fire Cox.
Bork then did the needful as Nixon’s Solicitor General and acting head of the DOJ. The perceived abuse of presidential power by Nixon, and Bork’s role also weighed heavily at his confirmation process.
This brings us to the title of this post. During the confirmation hearings, Alan Simpson asked Bork why he wanted to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and Bork responded:
"Senator, I guess the answer to that is that I have spent my life in the intellectual pursuits in the law. And since I've been a judge, I particularly like the courtroom. I like the courtroom as an advocate and I like the courtroom as a judge. And I enjoy the give-and-take and the intellectual effort involved. It is just a life and that's of course the Court that has the most interesting cases and issues and I think it would be an intellectual feast just to be there and to read the briefs and discuss things with counsel and discuss things with my colleagues.”
So what was an honest answer came across as hubris, since the highest court in the land was for dispensing justice, not one’s intellectual playground. His nomination probably had been scuttled long before that, but that was the final straw.
Had Bork been confirmed, do you think we would have been living in a different America, and would it be one closer to your ideal?
"Senator, I guess the answer to that is that I have spent my life in the intellectual pursuits in the law. And since I've been a judge, I particularly like the courtroom. I like the courtroom as an advocate and I like the courtroom as a judge. And I enjoy the give-and-take and the intellectual effort involved. It is just a life and that's of course the Court that has the most interesting cases and issues and I think it would be an intellectual feast just to be there and to read the briefs and discuss things with counsel and discuss things with my colleagues.”
So what was an honest answer came across as hubris, since the highest court in the land was for dispensing justice, not one’s intellectual playground. His nomination probably had been scuttled long before that, but that was the final straw.
Had Bork been confirmed, do you think we would have been living in a different America, and would it be one closer to your ideal?
1 comment:
I'm with Teddie on this one.
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