Robert Bork: Encyclopedia II - Robert Bork - Supreme Court nomination

Robert Bork - 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 fuelled by strong opposition by civil and women's rights groups concerned with what they claimed was Bork's desire to roll back civil rights decisions of the Warren and Burger courts.

Two dramatic events of the Senate debate were Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)'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 took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of it. Kennedy declared, "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, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government." TV commercials narrated by the late Gregory Peck attacked Bork as an extremist. Kennedy's speech fueled widespread public skepticism of Bork's nomination. Others, including Bork himself, felt the speech egregiously misrepresented his views. During debate over his nomination, Bork's video rental history was leaked to the press, which led to the enactment of the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act. His video rental history was unremarkable, and included such harmless titles as A Day at the Races, Ruthless People and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

To pro-choice rights groups, Bork's originalist views and his belief that the Constitution does not contain a general "right to privacy" (as opposed to specific privacy rights, such as the Fourth Amendment right to be secure from unreasonable searches) 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 women's groups mobilized to press for Bork's rejection, and the resulting 1987 Senate confirmation hearings became an intensely partisan 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 Article Two of the United States Constitution requires for judicial nominees of the President.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Supreme Court nomination", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki