Bork, Robert Heron

Born March 1, 1927, in Pittsburgh, PA
Died December 19, 2012, in Arlington, VA

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Nominated by Ronald Reagan on December 7, 1981, to a seat vacated by Carl E. McGowan. Confirmed by the Senate on February 8, 1982, and received commission on February 9, 1982. Service terminated on February 5, 1988, due to resignation.

Education:
University of Chicago, B.A., 1948
University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1953

Professional Career:

U.S. Marine Corps, 1945-1946, 1950-1952
Private practice, Chicago, Illinois, 1955-1962
Professor, Yale Law School, 1962-1981
Solicitor general of the United States, 1973-1977
Acting attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, 1973-1974
Private practice, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982

Other Nominations/Recess Appointments:

Nominated to Supreme Court of the United States, July 7, 1987; rejected by Senate, October 23, 1987

Bibliography

Adler, Johnathon H. “Robert Bork and Commercial Speech.” Journal of Law, Economics & Policy, vol. 10, no. 3 (Fall, 2014): 615-33.

Adler, Mortimer Jerome. “Robert Bork Revisited: Unasked Questions, Timeless Issues,” Aspen Institute Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4 (Autumn 1990): 105-33.

Berger, Raoul. “Activist Censures of Robert Bork.” Northwestern University Law Review, vol. 85, no. 4 (1991): 993-1040.

Blaze, Douglas A. “The Nomination of Robert Bork: Revisiting the Constitution.” Arizona State Law Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (1987): 467-74.

Bork, Robert H. Saving Justice: Watergate, the Saturday Night Massacre, and Other Adventures of a Solicitor General. New York: Encounter Books, 2013.

________.The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law. New York: The Free Press, 1990.

________. A Time to Speak: Selected Writings and Arguments. Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute (2008).

Brickner, Paul. “Robert Bork’s Quest for Certainty: Attempting to Reconcile the Irreconcilable.” Journal of Contemporary Law, vol. 17, no. 1 (1991): 49-71.

Bronner, Ethan. Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.

Cohn, Avern. “Watergate and Bork.” Litigation, vol. 40, no. 4 (Summer 2014): 17-18.

Cribb, T. Kenneth, Jr. “Robert Bork: A Man for All Seasons: Are there Unremunerated Rights – Symposium on Law and Public Policy.” Harvard Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 12, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 123-6.

Gitenstein, Mark. Matters of Principle: An Insider's Account of America's Rejection of Robert Bork's Nomination to the Supreme Court. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

Griffin, Stephen M. "Politics and the Supreme Court: The Case of the Bork Nomination." Journal of Law & Politics 5 (1989): 551-604.

Huffman, John L. and Denise M. Trauth. “Communications Law, Judicial Restraint, and Robert Bork.” Communications and the Law, vol. 11, no. 3 (Sept. 1989): 43-66.

McGuigan, Patrick B. and Dawn M. Weyrich. Ninth Justice: The Fight for Bork. Washington, DC: Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, 1990.

Neal, Andrea. “Robert Bork: Advocate of Judicial Restraint.” American Bar Association Journal, vol. 73, no. 9 (Sep. 1 1987): 82-87.

Pertschuk, Michael and Wendy Schaetzel. People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.

Phillips, Peter. “A Study of Robert Bork.” Arizona State Law Review, vol. 19, no. 3 (1987): 425-66.

Pomerance, Benjamin. “What Might Have Been: 25 Years of Robert Bork on the United States Supreme Court.” Belmont Law Review, vol. 1 (2014): 221-66.

Power, Robert C. “The Education of Robert Bork.” University of Bridgeport Law Review, vol. 10, no. 1 (1989): 7-62.

Reynolds, Glenn Harlan. “Sex, Lies and Jurisprudence: Robert Bork, Griswold and the Philosophy of Original Understanding.” Georgia Law Review, vol. 24, no. 4 (Summer 1990): 1045-1114.

“Comment: A Second Look at Robert Bork.” Washington Lawyer, vol. 2 (Sept/Oct. 1987): 44-8.

Symposium: “Robert Bork and Anti-Trust Policy.” Antitrust Law Journal, vol. 79, no. 3 (2014): 821-34.

Tributes: “Remembering Judge Robert Bork.” Ave Maria Law Review, vol. 13, no. 1 (Winter 2015): vi-120.

Manuscript Collections

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Robert Bork papers, 1924-1987.
14.2 linear ft. (10,680 items); finding aid; restricted; correspondence, judicial and legal papers, and miscellaneous documents.

Oral History

Bork, Robert H. "The Honorable Robert H. Bork: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit." Interview conducted on March 13, 1992, by Victoria L. Radd. Judges' Library, E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse, Washington, D.C., 1997. Transcript, 20 pages.Also available at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and in the Manuscript Reading Room at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Bork, Robert H. "Life & Career of Robert Bork." Interview conducted for broadcast on May 25, 1988. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Public Affairs Video Archives, 1988. Videotape, 55 minutes.

Federal Judicial Center

You are here

Bork, Robert Heron