Robert Bork (1927–2012)
Yale Law professor (1962–1981, 1988); US Solicitor General (1973–1977; performed the “Saturday Night Massacre” firing of Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox after Richardson and Ruckelshaus resigned); D.C. Circuit judge (1982–1988); failed Reagan SCOTUS nominee (1987 — the rejection that gave English the verb “borked”); founding architect of originalism as conservative judicial doctrine; central figure in the wiki’s Declarationism / Common Good Constitutionalism debates as the prior judicial-philosophy paradigm both critiques work against.
Why He Matters Here
Two specific roles in the wiki:
- The 1964 Goldwater-Civil-Rights-Act constitutional brief. Per Menand 2001: “Barry Goldwater sought a second opinion from another member of his brain trust, Robert Bork, then a law professor at Yale. Bork wrote a seventy-five-page concurrence” with William Rehnquist’s view that the Civil Rights Act was unconstitutional. Goldwater voted no on the strength of Rehnquist + Bork. The Bork concurrence is the wiki’s clearest case of the legal-academic underwriting of Goldwater-era movement conservatism’s substantive position on civil rights — a position framed as constitutional-formalist but functioning as anti-civil-rights.
- Originalism as the prior paradigm. Bork’s The Tempting of America (1990) is the canonical statement of judicial originalism — the doctrine Adrian Vermeule’s Common Good Constitutionalism and Deneen-style postliberalism reject as inadequate for substantive moral ends. Vermeule’s CGC argument is structured against Bork-style originalism. Without Bork’s prior consolidation of originalism, the postliberal counter-move would not be intelligible.
Career Snapshot
- Yale Law (BA 1948, JD 1953); Yale Law professor 1962.
- 1973: Nixon’s Solicitor General. October 20, 1973 — fired Archibald Cox in the “Saturday Night Massacre” after AG Richardson and Deputy AG Ruckelshaus had resigned rather than comply.
- 1982: appointed by Reagan to the D.C. Circuit.
- 1987: nominated by Reagan to the Supreme Court. Rejected by the Senate 58–42 after a confirmation campaign organized by Ted Kennedy. The rejection was a defining loss for the conservative legal movement; the verb “to bork” entered the language. The seat eventually went to Anthony Kennedy.
- 1988: resigned from the bench; senior fellow at AEI.
- 1990: The Tempting of America — the canonical originalist manifesto.
- 1996: Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline — late-period cultural conservatism that anticipates George-style social-conservative pessimism.
- 2003: converted to Catholicism (received by Cardinal McCarrick) — the late-life Catholic conversion pattern shared with James Burnham, Frank Meyer, Russell Kirk.
Cross-References
- Barry Goldwater — wrote the 1964 Civil Rights Act constitutional brief for him
- 1964 Republican National Convention — the political context
- Adrian Vermeule — postliberal who critiques Borkian originalism
- Common Good Constitutionalism — the postliberal counter-doctrine
- Declarationism — Jaffa’s competing constitutional theology
- Beyond Originalism — Kersch’s genealogy
- He Knew He Was Right
Stub — to be expanded when a wiki source treats Bork’s originalism in depth.