Robert H. Bork, 1927–2012

Judge Robert H. Bork, who died in December, age 85, was a notable contributor to The New Criterion and a close friend of the editors. We are pleased to feature in this issue two items memorializing Bob Bork’s achievement. The first is an excerpt from his forthcoming book Saving Justice: Watergate, the Saturday Night Massacre, and Other Adventures of a Solicitor General, introduced by Judge Bork’s friend and colleague the Hon. A. Raymond Randolph. The second is Andrew C. McCarthy’s revisiting of the furor surrounding Judge Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1987. The realm of politics has never been the realm of truth, but the vicious frenzy that the Left visited upon Bob during his nomination may be unique in the annals of American history for its vituperativeness and sheer mendacity. Senator Ted Kennedy and his colleagues managed to deny Bob Bork a seat on the Supreme Court but at a huge cost to their honor and the credibility of the political process they represented. We are still living with the consequences of that episode. The judgment of history, as Andrew C. McCarthy demonstrates, is clear: Bork was innocent. RIP.