Comments for The Loss of Robert Bork at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 7 out of 7 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 13:02:18 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13804 "If Robert Bork had taken his place on the Court, Roe v Wade would have been overruled in 1992." A point I rant about whenever I am confronted with Catholics who justify voting for Democrats like Kennedy and Biden by accusing the GOP of doing nothing on abortion. "Frankly conservatives these days have less to worry about with unelected courts and far more with the changing sands of American political opinion on say gay "marriage", which someone like Bork today is useless against." Didn't unelected courts overturn Proposition 8? - Brian English Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:42:31 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13801 I'm sure that Judge Bork has his young adherents in the law schools. But as you admit, Bork lost, we lost. When I was in law school the Federalist Society was very well behaved. - Graham Combs Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:35:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13798 Thank you, Hadley. Until I read your column from several years ago, I thought I was the only person in America who remembered what Joe (from my home county) Biden had said in both proceedings, and how the one contradicted the other. I guess I could never expect that Mother Times would have noticed. Heck, Mother Times doesn't even read Mother Times anymore. One thing we should all remember: nobody had ever witnessed a politicized SC nomination before. What happened to Bork had no precedent in anyone's memory; for all I know, it had no precedent in US history. What we now have is a perfectly useless Senate functioning as an electoral college to confirm the nomination of a few lawyers to the Archonate. The executive branch decrees; the judicial branch legislates; the legislative branch rots. - Tony Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:40:23 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13797 Good piece Dr. Arkes. I must say as a young undergraduate freshman in college with decidedly liberal views, the whole intellectually dishonest manner in which the Democrats handled the Bork nomination led me into the GOP for years. But now as I look back on it, I think it was Reagan who deserved part of the blame for what happened. If Reagan had appointed Bork first instead of O'Connor he surely would have been confirmed. I think Scalia could have been confirmed by the 1986 Senate class as well. Also Bork in retrospect did not handle his nomination well. As an academic he tried to turn the hearings into a debate on the finer points of jurisprudence, which was silly. But when facing a newly elected Democratic Senate majority, it would have been much better to fly with his flags lower. At least it would have been wise to downplay some of the statements he had made in an academic context years earlier. When asked "does the Constitution guarantee the "right to privacy" he should have said "yes, there are many aspects of personal privacy that the Constitution protects" and then been very vague about the specifics. But Bork's confrontational answers made it hard to keep the support of guys like Howell Heflin and Arlen Specter whose votes should have been gettable. And overall, I now see Bork's ideas as very passe. As a reaction against the activism of the 60's and the 70's, his ideas were at least consistent, easy doctrines to teach and so made sense as an ad hoc response to the Left. But since then the waters have become alot more muddied and the need for a more forthright intellectual defense of a natural law jurisprudence as a replacement for his (and Scalia's) stale positivism has never been more needed. Frankly conservatives these days have less to worry about with unelected courts and far more with the changing sands of American political opinion on say gay "marriage", which someone like Bork today is useless against. I really think Bork's time has come and gone. - jsmitty Tue, 09 Oct 2012 08:46:23 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13794 Well said, professor. Such accolades are well-deserving. Mr. Bork is a man of towering intellect and integrity. One of his quotes is most revealing: "I don't think the Constitution is studied almost anywhere, including law schools. In law schools, what they study is what the court said about the Constitution. They study the opinions. They don't study the Constitution itself." His seminal book, "Slouching towards Gomorrah," was profoundly insightful. A few quotes from the book: "Analysis demonstrates that we continue slouching towards Gomorrah. We are well along the road to the moral chaos that is the end of radical individualism and the tyranny that is the goal of radical egalitarianism. Modern liberalism has corrupted our culture across the board.” (p. 331) "If there are signs that we have become less concerned than we should be with virtue, there are also signs that many Americans are becoming restless under the tyrannies of egalitarianism and sick of the hedonistic individualism that has brought us to the suburbs of Gomorrah. But, for the immediate future, what we probably face is an increasingly vulgar, violent, chaotic, and politicized culture." (p. 342) Robert Bork concludes his book with these words: "As we approach its desolate and sordid precincts, the pessimism of the intellect tells us that Gomorrah is our probable destination. What is left to us is a determination not to accept that fate and the courage to resist it—the optimism of the will." (p. 343) - Grump Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:44:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13793 "Biden warned that judges with that perspecrive would not support the regulations necessary for the economy." Is the reader to infer from this sentence that abortion was considered necessary for the economy? I am only trying to be clear. I noticed, Dr. Arkes, that not once in your excellent column do you cite the fact that Biden, Kennedy and Anthony Kennedy are referred to in some circles as being "catholic" (sic). Thank you! While Bork and Thomas were facing their interrogations, the bishops were working hard on Communion reception while standing, Communion in the hand, women in the Sanctuary, female altar servers, First Communion before first Confession and other "serious" items which effeminate men do to busy themselves. (And they have to have a three week Synod in Rome to discuss where all the ADULTS in the Church have gone?) - Manfred Tue, 09 Oct 2012 03:15:42 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/the-loss-of-robert-bork.html#comment-13789 When people say you vote on one issue ABORTION, I say "YES". - Jack,CT Tue, 09 Oct 2012 02:20:20 +0100