President Ronald Reagan, long a critic of liberal and activist judges who "made law" rather than simply applying the original intentions of the founders, repeatedly expressed his hope for placing conservative and self-restrained justices on the Supreme Court. When Lewis Powell, a moderate conservative, announced his retirement, Reagan sent forward a nomination fully embodying this hope. Sixty-year-old Robert Heron Bork had a distinguished career as a law professor at Yale (1962–1973, 1977–1981), as U.S. solicitor general (1973–1977), and as a federal appeals judge for the District of Columbia (1982–1988). During the Watergate hearings, Bork's two superiors decided to resign rather than carry out President Richard Nixon's order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox. Bork, however, earned some notoriety for his willingness to carry out the president's order.
The televised confirmation hearings were bitter, spirited, and harsh. Bork's supporters pointed to his record of service and his brilliance as a theorist, writer, and judge. Opponents, quoting his judicial opinions and other writings, insisted that his elevation would endanger civil rights, the right to privacy, the legality of abortion, and the constitutional protections of nonpolitical speech. On 27 October, the Senate defeated the nomination on a largely party-line vote (Democrats, 52 to 2 against; Republicans, 40 to 6 for). The nominee's angry supporters coined a new verb: to be "borked" is to be unfairly treated, to have one's views misrepresented. In 1988, Bork resigned his judgeship to become a scholar-in-residence at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
Bibliography
Bork, Robert H. The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law. New York, Free Press, 1990.
Bronner, Ethan. Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America. New York: Norton, 1989.
—David W. Levy
