Matters of Principle
An Insider's Account of America's Rejection of Robert Bork's Nomination to the Supreme Court
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
In his bestseller The Tempting of America, Robert Bork portrayed himself as someone whose views are in the American mainstream, and has said that the failure of the Senate to approve him was an aberration. On the contrary, Matters of Principle shows that with the rejection of Bork, Americans emphatically reaffirmed one of the enduring virtues of our national character—a fervent belief in individual rights.
In the end, Americans rejected the cramped vision of Robert Bork and the Right. Matters of Principle is a lively, provocative, and thoughtful first-hand account of this tumultuous battle for control of the Supreme Court, a battle that continues to make news but whose strategy was shaped largely behind closed doors.
For Joseph Biden, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it would prove to be a watershed moment. Biden wanted to be President and was in the middle of a campaign for the Democratic nomination when the process began. Robert Bork’s ambition was to serve on the Supreme Court. Both saw their dreams die amid constant pressures from political action groups, other senators, editorial boards, and the President. The goal for Biden was to make the American public interested in a battle over judicial philosophy without being perceived as a political opportunist. Bork’s aim was to become the standard-bearer of the Reagan Revolution, to project himself as a moderate, while his judicial decisions and his writings showed otherwise.
The inner proceedings provide a fascinating look at the players in this event, from the editorial boards of The New York Times and The Washington Post to the Senate chambers of Biden, Thurmond, Kennedy, et al., to the White House, where President Reagan erred enormously, first by choosing Bork, then by adopting faulty strategy to help him, and finally by apparently abandoning Bork and leaving him without strong support.
Perhaps most important, Matters of Principle is a story about the clash of judicial ideas and ideals. Mark Gitenstein traces the evolution of Bork’s legal philosophy from his days at Yale through his time in the Nixon Administration, finally offering a portrait of a man far from the mainstream of American beliefs.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Gitenstein, formerly chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, was intimately involved in the effort to defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court. In this engrossing, incisive, fast-moving account, he argues that American lawmakers made a principled, momentous decision in rejecting Bork's judicial philosophy, which holds that rights not explicitly written into the Constitution do not warrant protection by federal laws. In Gitenstein's view, Bork's sponsor, President Reagan, pusillanimously stood on the sidelines, turning over the pro-Bork campaign to Sen. Howard Baker and the Washington Republican establishment. Bork was repackaged as a moderate, he notes, but the press and the public were not deceived. He contends that the Bork battle preserved the legacy of the Warren Court by upholding the right to privacy, the status of fundamental yet unenumerated rights and an expansive notion of liberty. An inspiring and important book.