PDF The Bork Hearings Highlights from the Most Controversial Judicial Confirmation Battle in Us History Ralph E Shaffer 9781558763753 Books

Product details Paperback 168 pages Publisher Markus Wiener Publishers; 1st edition (September 6, 2005) Language English ISBN-10 1558763759

The Bork Hearings Highlights from the Most Controversial Judicial Confirmation Battle in Us History Ralph E Shaffer 9781558763753 Books Reviews

• VERBATIM
  
  What Is Fair Game When Examining the Record of a Court Nominee?
  
  Article tools By RICHARD BYRNE
  
  Ralph E. Shaffer, professor emeritus of history, California State Polytechnic University
  
  What will citizens glean from the Senate testimony of John G. Roberts Jr. about his nomination to the Supreme Court? In The Bork Hearings Highlights From the Most Controversial Judicial Confirmation Battle in U.S. History (Markus Wiener Publishers), Mr. Shaffer offers a compilation of key exchanges on such issues as original intent and privacy in the 1987 hearings on Robert H. Bork's nomination.
  
  He says those hearings were "an unprecedented discussion of constitutional theory"
  
  -discussion that led to Mr. Bork's rejection bythe U.S. Senate.
  
  Q. Many nominees duck a wide-ranging discussion of their views, but you point to Mr. Bork's relish for debate as a factor in his testimony. In light of the result, will we ever see another voluble nominee?
  
  A. Nearly all of them will be more reticent. In fact, the five who have followed him have been more reticent. They did not want to talk. ... And before Bork, there really wasn't a flashpoint to go into such a lengthy grilling.
  
  Bork was a flashpoint because of what he had written and the speeches that he made. All of this, and particularly the views which he held, sparked a considerable outpouring of concern on the part of Democrats. And Republicans on the committee tried to gloss over anything that he had written before by helping him restate it in a way that was more acceptable.
  
  Q. There is an increasing paper trail on Mr. Roberts, though only a short record of his judicial writings. What parts of that paper trail should be fair game?
  
  A. It should all be fair game, quite frankly. I see no reason why one should presume that when he was a solicitor general that he was simply doing what his boss and his client wanted. The man must have had some feelings toward those particular issues of his own, therefore he could support them.
  
  Q. What questions should senators ask Mr. Roberts?
  
  A. They should ask the same kinds of questions that they asked Bork. For instance, original intent; Bork was very good on original intent, even if you didn't agree with him. But he talked exactly and specifically about what it meant, and how complicated it was. That it was not just the framers of the Constitution, but the ratifiers as well. ... We have no idea what Roberts thinks about that.
  
  Q. What political winds would need to be blowing to create a situation in which a nomination sparked similar discussion?
  
  A. The next time that there is a left-of-center president, if that ever happens, the conservatives will do to that candidate what the Democrats did to Bork. I'm sure there will be very probing questions under those conditions.
  
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  Section Research & Publishing
  
  Volume 52, Issue 2, Page A19