European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 28, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday. September 2b. 19b7 columns William f. Buckley or. Bork fight shows Lack of Faith in . Society the Bork exercise serves other purposes than inc Public ventilation of different judicial philosophies. In this sense one is reminded of the Joe Mccar thy Yean there Are those of us very few granted when believe that nothing Mccarthy did and did t get away with was As egregious As what his enemies did and did get away with. Robert Bork s nomination has Tel people like sen. Edward Kennedy d-mass., saying such things As that Hork on the supreme court would mean a return to abortions by Coal hangers and Black Folk Riding in the Back of the bus. Now it is bad enough to hear such things from politicians. Vic know they Don t really believe it and they know we know hey Don t believe it but they Aren t addressing us. They Are talking to an amorphous constituency out there that warns to hear terror talk in inc same Way and far related reasons that Para nonacs need to feel threatened to serves the purpose or convincing them thai their insecurity is mollified and it gives them somebody to distrust and to hate. But neat thought is not decosted from a speech by Kennedy no More than As professor Galbraith once remarked it was Ever possible to Fine tune a speech by Everett dirkson. What truly disappoints is when Admi Rable and Learned men reach indefensible positions As happened to . Rosenthal former executive editor of the new Yorac times and i am glad to proclaim in a close personal Friend and write nonsense about Bork. After Reading or. Rosin tial s column Robert Bork Radical in the new York times 1 Felt myself reaching out to grab something anything inc Sensa Tion the astronauts f suppose experience As they gradually find themselves outside the reach of Gravity As people should feel after Reading thai column. Rosenthals Challenge is Laid most directly Ai the Doorstep of America s conservative leaders. It is a great error he says to believe that bark is a real now Uherc is a sense not evidently known to Rosenthal in which this is True. The eminent professor Gerhart Niemeyer enthusiastically in favor of inc Bork nomination confesses that he would not vote for him if he were to be the Jingle member of a . Supreme court. Mortimer Adler actually opposes the nomination on inc grounds thai Bork is not a conservative Here understood As a believer in the natural Law. It could be said about Bork that he is a positivist in the company of Oliver Wendell Holmes and others who do not acknowledge any higher moral authority than the Constitution. But that is irrelevant inasmuch As what divides the Senate and the country in t Bork s position on the natural Law but Bork s position on the responsibilities Martin Gottlieb of inc supreme court Bork s position on this subject is he position of those who believe in the Federal sys tem. Senate majority Leader Robert Byrd no less in his remarks on the first Day of the hearings said the fact that you re a conservative does t bother me and it does t bother me if the court becomes what is called conservative court because i was very critical of the court in earlier years when chief Justice Warren Hel that position. T Don i personally wan i to see another Warren court in my How come nodding Carter is quoted in the Wall Street journal the Bork Noti nation requires liberals like me to confront a reality we Don t want 10confront, which is that we Are depending to a Large pan on the least democratic institution with a Small a in government to defend what it is we no longer Are Able a win out there in the out Rosenthal i language that belongs on bumper stickers writes As though the Senate were being asked to give Robert Bork the keys to the . Constitution. And if he had such keys what would he do he would destroy the Bill of rights Barrier Between Church and How High thai Barrier should be is a continuing constitutional and political debate. But even assuming that Bork would be disposed to undo Mccollum is. Board of education trimming released time for religious instruction in the Public schools we would be As unfree As we were Between 1791 and 1948, which is less than a Nightmare Rosenthal supposes that Bork s nomination would result in the disappearance of every diaphragm and condom from the apothecary s shop that extra Politi Cal free speech would be endangered Bork s court would presumably sustain a stale Law prescribing imprisonment for any critic who disliked the music of John Philip Sousa. In a nutshell judge Bork s Amer Ica would be a country where we could tit turn to judges for something called whatever happens to Bork his nomination has documented How tenuous is the Confidence of Many important americans in the durability of our society. Four factors cause current confusion Over Bork will the Seal Robert Bork reseated do Fenikis of supreme court nominee Bork say me reason his congressional Tes Timony makes him look like an ideological Chameleon is that his detractors painted a pc hearing portrait of him that was caricatured and inaccurate. Partly True. However the perception of Bork As a hard line right Winger has transcended ideological boundaries. After Justice Lewis Powell resigned. President Reagan was advised by non to appoint a to replace him. Conservative commentator William f. Buckley or. Wrote a column in direct rebuttal of this suggestion saving the Powell retirement gave the president the Best Opportunity yet to fight fur constitutional a vhf Hork was nominated buguey ant it entire political right congratulated it president for sticking to his Ejups m rejection of Powell ism now however. Sen. Orrin Hatch. R Utah. A senatorial Spear Carrier for seems to be out to con Vince us thai Powell and Bork Are of the same general Mold. Indeed Hatch has enjoyed pointing to cases on voting rights and civil rights in which Powell was actually to the right of Bork. A month or so ago a Long article praising Bork appeared in the conserva Tive National review Magazine. It said Over the past three decades Liberal jurists have attempted to turn inc pint. Fourth fifth and 14th amendments into highly abstract and arbitrary rules of a game in which enemies of american life. Must always be spotted two touchdowns in their contest with Socie every readier of thai concluded that the author thought Bork would do his Best to straighten out the supreme court on this score. Now however Bork has affirmed his acceptance of the supreme court s positions on inc first and 14th amendments the Only two that have gotten much at Tention at his hearings. Four factors seem 10 have caused the current confusion about where Bork stands political activists on the left and right have sharply overstated their arguments. Bark has indeed changed his Mindon some crucial Points. Even As a mid die aged Man he was saying that the first amendment guarantee of free speech seemed to him to apply to Only political speech. Is that outside the mainstream or what there arc certain crucial questions the senators can t ask such As judge Bork which member of inc recent court do you think you have most in common with philosophically professor Robert Bork seems in have been a different person from solicit Lor general Bork and judge Bork. The professor was let s face in a conservative activist. He weal before in tensely conservative audiences and told them what they wanted to hear. Me not Only said for example that in supreme coun decision legalizing Abor Tion was unconstitutional he also said that for a supreme coun Justice Prece Dent was not. All thai in lid. He said there was a whole body of supreme court rulings that should be reconsidered. week he definitely did nut Ell the Senate that precedent is not. All thai important though he was pressed again and again on the subject. He could have sat there 20 years and he never once would have said precedent is not. All that instead he listed a whole slew of factors he would consider before overturning precedent. Now he says that he finds much about the current court to Admire and could have written some pieces in its defense but just did t happen to. This one is. A stunner. After All. From the Day he was nominated Bork has been treated As a Savior by the political move ment that is simply appalled and enraged about the general direction of the current court. Its id suggest that if he had written myi lit thinks the current court is Relt Nin. Us. This is disorienting
