The Eighties in America - Salem Press (2009)

nine to five. Although acknowledging Bork’s legal
credentials, the committee was especially concerned
with his perceived hostility toward the civil rights of
blacks, women, and other minorities; his rejection of
a general constitutional right to privacy, especially in
light of its implications for reproductive and homo-
sexual rights; and his limited interpretation of the
constitutional protection of the freedom of speech.
On October 23, 1987, the full Senate defeated
Bork’s nomination by a vote of fifty-eight to forty-
two. In addition to sustained opposition from civil
rights advocates and his conservative ideology, a
number of other factors coalesced in Bork’s defeat:
Bork had been the solicitor general of the United
States during the Watergate scandal. In October,
1973, President Richard M. Nixon ordered Attorney
General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the
special prosecutor who was investigating Nixon’s
White House. Richardson resigned in protest rather
than carry out the order. Deputy Attorney General
William Ruckelshaus became acting attorney gen-
eral, and Ruckelshaus also resigned rather than fire
Cox. Bork then became acting attorney general,
and, unlike Richardson and Ruckelshaus, he fol-
lowed the president’s order and fired Cox. These
resignations and termination became known as the
“Saturday Night Massacre,” and Nixon’s opponents
still blamed Bork for his role in the event.
In addition, President Reagan was in the last two
years of his second term and had been politically
weakened by the Iran-Contra scandal, reducing his
ability to persuade senators to support his nominee.
The Democrats were in control of the Senate, having
become the majority party in January, 1987, and they
were particularly worried by Bork’s insistence that
originalism—the philosophy that judges should in-
terpret the Constitution according to the original in-
tentions of its framers—was the only legitimate ap-
proach. The Democrats and the interest groups that
opposed Bork believed that the Supreme Court was
already trending conservative, a trend that would
have been magnified had the conservative Bork re-
placed the “swing” voter Powell.

Impact On February 8, 1988, Bork resigned his ap-
pellate judgeship. The seat to which he had been
nominated on the Supreme Court was occupied by
Anthony Kennedy, who would eventually become an
even more important “swing” voter than Powell had
been.

Bork’s confirmation hearings resulted in criticism

of the perceived politicization of the judicial selection

process. They revealed that, within the context of po-

larizing politics, any substantive statement by a nomi-

nee is potentially controversial enough to become

fodder to be used against the nominee. This situation

had a lasting effect on the nomination process, as

many subsequent nominees simply refused to answer

the Senate’s questions about their judicial views, stat-

ing that it would be inappropriate to discuss in ad-

vance views that would affect their future decisions on

the bench. As a result of the politicization of the pro-

cess, numerous bipartisan committees and task forces

offered specific recommendations to limit the parti-

san politics in the confirmation process.

Further Reading

Bork, Robert H. “Original Intent and the Constitu-

tion.”Humanities7 (February, 1986): 22-26.

_______.The Tempting of America: The Political Seduc-

tion of the Law. New York: The Free Press, 1990.

Bronner, Ethan.Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomina-

tion Shook America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.

Jordan, Barbara.Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth

with Eloquent Thunder. Edited by Max Sherman.

Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

Shaffer, Ralph E., ed.The Bork Hearings: Highlights

from the Most Controversial Judicial Confirmation Bat-

tle in U.S. Histor y. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener,

2005.

Richard A. Glenn

See also Abortion; Homosexuality and gay rights;

Iran-Contra affair; Meese, Edwin, III; Pornography;

Reagan, Ronald; Supreme Court decisions.

Bourassa, Robert

Identification Premier of Quebec, 1985-1994

Born July 14, 1933; Montreal, Quebec

Died October 2, 1996; Montreal, Quebec

During Bourassa’s second term as premier of Quebec, he led

the Canadian province out of the turbulence of the Lévesque

era and into a period of economic prosperity, only to have it

founder amid a rising constitutional controversy.

At the beginning of the 1980’s, few expected that

Robert Bourassa would ever again become premier

of Quebec. Not only had his first term ended in 1976

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Bourassa, Robert The Eighties in America