Free Republic

For the last 30 years, Republican nominations for the Supreme Court have faced personal, ugly, defamatory attacks from Democrats. We’ve been hearing a lot from Democrats and the media this week about how President Trump and Senate Republicans are “violating norms” with their plans to nominate and confirm a Supreme Court justice before the November election. Of course, the clear historical norm in this situation is for a sitting president to nominate and, if his party controls the Senate, for the Senate to confirm a new justice — even in an election year.The norm Republicans are following isn’t the one...

Nixon-era DOJ official made famous by 'Saturday Night Massacre' dies at 87 BY ZACK BUDRYK - 11/27/19 03:52 PM EST Nixon-era DOJ official made famous by 'Saturday Night Massacre' dies at Former Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, one of two top Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who resigned rather than fire the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal, died Wednesday at 87, his family said. Ruckelshaus joined the Nixon administration in 1969 as assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s civil rights division before becoming the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) first administrator in 1970. In 1973, after a brief stint as...

Subtitle: A Judicial Mess. The Framers considered and rejected a policy-making role for the Scotus. Despite James Madison’s repeated efforts, the federal convention defeated his attempts to attach the Scotus to the Executive Branch through a Council of Revision. Rufus King of Massachusetts noted that judges must “expound the law as it should come before them, free from the bias of having participated in its formation.” As if lawmaking by courts didn’t pose enough dangers to free government, what of the extreme danger of dressing up feel-good social justice in the drag of rights? The late Judge Robert Bork summed...

Who or what is the source of civil rights? What are civil rights? They must be important or there wouldn’t be a US Commission on Civil Rights, a Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, or several Civil Rights Acts. How can the meaning of such a common term remain so hazy and ill-defined? Despite the confusion, one thing is certain. The Supreme Court has no business creating civil rights. [snip] Through their state and US Constitutions, the sovereign people are entitled to occupy the high ground above the governments of their creation. Scotus obviously did not participate in...

The animosity and polarization surrounding the judicial confirmation process falls on Congress and its lack of a collaborative spirit, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Wednesday. Speaking at a public event, Ginsburg said collegiality “means understanding the institution you work for is more important than the egos of the individuals,” according to the Washington Post. She did not make reference to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by the Senate earlier this month in a 51-49 vote, with only one Democrat voting for him. Ginsburg noted that she was confirmed in a 96-3 vote, and that the late Justice...

From the NewsHour's video vault, watch Judy Woodruff's 1987 report on the failed Supreme Court confirmation of President Ronald Reagan appointee Judge Robert Bork. The Senate rejected Bork's nomination by a 58-42 vote on October 23, 1987.

When NeverTrump pundit Erick Erickson suggested that the accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh by Christine Blasey Ford was the result of a PR job, there was both laughter and disdain from the left. There isn’t much mirth or contempt now that it’s been revealed who Judge Kavanaugh’s accuser has retained. According to Politico, Christine Blasey Ford — the 51-year-old California psychologist who says the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted her while they were in high school in Maryland — is receiving advice from Democrat activist Ricki Seidman. “Seidman, a senior principal at TSD Communications, in the past worked...

Ricki Seidman, the Democratic operative who is advising Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, predicted in July that there would be a “strategy” to defeat Kavanaugh’s nomination. Seidman interviewPolitico reported on Thursday that Seidman, who also advised Anita Hill to testify against Clarence Thomas in 1991, is giving advice to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. On July 10, Seidman said on a conference call with the American Constitution Society that she believed a “strategy will emerge” that would upend Kavanaugh’s nomination. Audio of the call was recorded and uploaded by the GOP on Thursday. “I do think that over the coming days and weeks...

Despite no evidence to back up the allegations of attempted sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh, the liberal media were eager to make them stick. Comparisons to Justice Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill were wildly thrown around along with suggestions those accusations were true. They were also hopeful for a better result this time. Disgraced journalist Dan Rather admitted as much during a Monday appearance on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time. Disguised under the illusion of seeking “truth”, Rather admitted that the character assassination of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in the 1980’s was what happened to Justice...

Are you happy now, Teddy Kennedy? Are you happy, Joe Biden? Are you happy now, Harry Reid? It’s due to the things that you did and said that Donald J. Trump is now naming his second Supreme Court justice in under two years in office. It is your fault that the once courtly process of Supreme Court appointments turned into the blood-and-thunder-eye-gouging drama that we hate and we live through today. It was 31 years ago, in 1987, that Edward M. Kennedy burst on the floor of the Senate to tell us all that with Robert Bork on the Supreme...

Remember Ted Kennedy in 1987 claiming that if the Senate confirmed Robert Bork to the Supreme Court, “women would be forced into back-alley abortions [and] blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters?” Not vitriolic. How about the 1991 “high-tech lynching” by Senate Dems of Clarence Thomas? Again, not vitriolic. Or the infamous NAACP dragging-death ad of 2000 in which George W. Bush was accused of killing the victim all over again? Nope, not vitriolic. No, the political vitriol didn’t begin until 2008. And it was Sarah Palin’s fault. That is, if you believe CNN, and, apparently, John McCain. This morning,...

Here is a simple rule: you can judge the caliber of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee by how angry the Democrats get. The smarter and more influential the nominee, in an important sense the more qualified they are, the angrier Democrats will get.

In his column encouraging President Trump to select his nominee to the Supreme Court from among the several names he mentioned during the 2016 campaign, it appears that Jonah Goldberg omitted an important fact regarding Trump’s list. In May 2016, when Trump “issued” his first list, there was already a list. In fact, there was actually a judge selected by a sitting U.S. president, whose nomination was stonewalled by Senate Republicans for nearly a year and finally abandoned.

With Trump asking the Supreme Court to uphold his travel ban, I know for certain that if the case is heard before Anthony Kennedy retires, the decision will be in his hands. Needless to say I am very doubtful that we I can count on Kennedy to uphold it. That made me think - how would the 21st century be different had Robert Bork been nominated to the Supreme Court instead of Kennedy? Its obvious that SSM never would have been legalized via the court, and Roe vs. Wade would've stood a good chance of being overturned. What other decisions...

Senate smear never paid a price for claiming he served. In the confirmation hearings for Jeff Sessions, president-elect Donald Trump’s choice for Attorney General, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, proceeded as though David Horowitz had been the AG choice. David Horowitz was not present but Blumenthal cited his statements that all the major Muslim organizations are connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, that 80 percent of the mosques in America are filled with hate against Jews, and that too many blacks are in prison because too many blacks commit crimes. Senator Blumenthal, an attorney, had not taken the trouble to investigate...

Democrats accused Republicans on Tuesday of taking their cues from Donald Trump after the Senate’s No. 2 Republican said President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court should expect to be treated like a “piñata.” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Republicans were “acting like big, tough people threatening to destroy the reputation of a Supreme Court nominee they haven’t even met yet.” Reid and other Democrats denounced a comment by Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, who told reporters late Monday that anyone nominated by Obama to the high court “will bear some resemblance to a piñata.” Reid...

[Editor's Note: In this interview with CNSNews.com in 2009, Judge Robert Bork warned that just "one judge"--Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy--effectively had the power to decide "the moral life of the nation.” Bork made the assertion after warning: "But we are going to see in the near future a terrible conflict between claimed rights of homosexuals and religious freedom. You are going to get Catholic hospitals that are going to be required as a matter of law to perform abortions. You are going to get Catholic or other groups’ relief services that are going to be required to allow adoption...

It’s been over a quarter-century since Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court became a defining moment in the confirmation of federal judges. Since the distinguished judge and former Yale Law professor was “borked” by demagogic personal attacks and blocked from the Court, confirmation battles have grown uglier and more protracted. John Lott, an economist who has written thought-provoking books on everything from gun control to the federal budget, says the pitched battles over court nominations are having real-world consequences. He argues that our federal courts are being intellectually degraded as politicians in both parties try to keep the brightest...

Most of us would be honored to have our name become a verb. Especially those of us in public life. But that is not how Judge Robert H. Bork got into the dictionary. He was "borked" when President Reagan nominated him to the U.S. Supreme Court. No sooner had the announcement been made by the White House on July 1, 1987, than Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) raced to the Senate floor to denounce the distinguished judge and former Yale Law Professor. In Robert Bork's America, Kennedy roared, blacks would once again sit in the back of the bus, rogue...

It's always best, I find, not to talk too rapturously about Ye Olde Days: days which, on careful inspection, yield evidence of problems aplenty. I won't assert, therefore, that no public figure ever received in earlier times a public evisceration comparable to that inflicted on the late Robert Bork, presidential nominee in 1987 to a seat on the U. S. Supreme Court. I will make just two claims: 1) The political-journalistic assault on Judge Bork was indecent, slanderous, and hysterical -- a disgrace to ethics and standards all across the board; and 2) it ought to have warned us what...