To the Editor:
When Democrats were in power, they made the rules. Judge Robert H. Bork was crucified when he was a Supreme Court nominee. If Justice Clarence Thomas had not confronted Senator Ted Kennedy and his fellow liberals during his confirmation with the word “lynching,” he would have received the Bork treatment.
Now that Republicans are in control, Democrats still want to call the shots. The Constitution does not have a time frame for confirmations, and this is chafing the Democrats.
FRANCIS ELLIOTT
Pineville, La.
Note from KBJ: Democrats are shameless. Since at least 1987, when they Borked Robert Bork, one of the most distinguished legal practitioners, scholars, and judges of the 20th century, they have done everything possible to prevent qualified "conservative" judges from ascending to the Supreme Court. What goes around comes around.
Note 2 from KBJ: Here is federal judge Richard A. Posner:
I knew Bob Bork, though not very well, and I am familiar with his writings and of course with the debacle of his rejection for the Supreme Court in 1987. What makes that debacle not only interesting, but also of lasting influence, is that Bork was probably the best qualified nominee for the Supreme Court in the last 71 years, which is to say since 1941, when Robert H. Jackson—attorney general, former solicitor general, confidant of FDR, brilliant lawyer—was nominated. Bork had extensive experience in private practice. He was a leading law professor—a distinguished antitrust scholar, also the principal inventor of the judicial philosophy of “originalism” or “original intent,” and the foremost conservative critic of the Supreme Court. He was a former solicitor general of distinction. He had served, also with distinction, for five years as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (Italics added.)
I rest my case.
