Robert H Bork

American culture--from religion to morality to law--is on what may be an irreversible decline, former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork said Wednesday on a tour to promote his new book. "If I had been confirmed, I would not have changed much, if anything," said Bork, 69, given what he argues in his book is the court's migration to the left. "I would spend most of my time commiserating with [Justices Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas and writing dissents.

Robert H. Bork, the conservative legal champion whose bitter defeat for a Supreme Court seat in 1987 politicized the confirmation process and changed the court's direction for decades, died Wednesday. He was 85. The former Yale law professor and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., from complications of heart disease, said his son Robert H. Bork Jr. A revered figure on the right, Bork inspired a generation of conservatives with his critiques of the liberal-dominated high court in the 1960s and '70s.

Robert H. Bork, the conservative legal champion whose bitter defeat for a Supreme Court seat in 1987 politicized the confirmation process and changed the court's direction for decades, died Wednesday. He was 85. The former Yale law professor and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., from complications of heart disease, said his son Robert H. Bork Jr. A revered figure on the right, Bork inspired a generation of conservatives with his critiques of the liberal-dominated high court in the 1960s and '70s.

In choosing a running mate, every presidential candidate insists that he is seeking above all someone who could serve as president at a moment's notice. Often that assertion is patently preposterous. With his choice of Joe Biden, Barack Obama can make that assurance with a straight face. The six-term senator from Delaware is serious, substantive and sophisticated in his understanding of the world. Political junkies already have generated reams -- and gigabytes -- of commentary about how Biden will or will not complement Obama in his contest with Republican candidate John McCain.

In 1987, the Senate rejected the nomination of Robert Bork by the largest vote in history against a nominee for the Supreme Court, although he was preeminently qualified. His constitutional opinions, which accounted for the nomination, brought his defeat. Bork provoked intense opposition because he was perceived as a conservative judicial activist who had made himself a symbol of opposition to liberal activism.

President Bush is nominating Clarence Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to succeed Robert H. Bork on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia.

Former President Gerald R. Ford will testify Tuesday in favor of Robert H. Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court, Sen. Strom Thurmond's office announced today. Ford will appear at the opening session of the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, according to Thurmond, the South Carolina senator who is the ranking Republican on the panel. Former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger also will testify for Bork.

The National Women's Political Caucus meeting in Portland, Ore., formally adopted a resolution urging the Senate to reject the nomination of federal appeals court Judge Robert H. Bork to the Supreme Court. "Judge Bork restricts individual rights and liberties in the name of 'judicial restraint' and 'neutrality principles,' " the resolution said. "He becomes a judicial activist when considering corporate, property or governmental interests he favors."

Bushy-bearded Robert H. Bork apparently would be the first member of the Supreme Court to sport chin whiskers in 46 years, if his nomination is confirmed by the Senate. A check Wednesday of the high court roster showed that Bork's beard will be the first since the classic Vandyke of Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who presided until June, 1941. The present court does have a mustachioed member, Justice Thurgood Marshall.

One-time U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork has settled a lawsuit against the Yale Club after he fell stepping onto a platform to speak. Bork attorney Randy Mastro said the terms of the deal are confidential. Bork claimed in the federal lawsuit he filed last year that because of the fall, he needed surgery and wound up with a limp. He wanted the club to pay him $1 million for not having stairs or a handrail leading up to the platform at the June 2006 event. Lawyers for the New York City chapter said any injuries he suffered were at least partially his fault.

Former Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, hired by a chief competitor to Microsoft Corp., cautioned Sunday that antitrust lawsuits by the Justice Department should be rare but that government action against Microsoft "is one of those rare cases." "Their documents . . . display a clear intent to monopolize, to prevent any competition from springing up," Bork said. "And they have used a variety of restrictive practices to prevent that kind of competition."

Former appellate Judge Robert Bork, one of the most prominent conservative voices in antitrust law, called on the Justice Department on Monday to file a broad new antitrust suit against Microsoft Corp. Bork, speaking at a news conference called by a new coalition of software companies dubbed the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation, said he had been retained by Netscape Communications Corp., Microsoft's rival in the Web browser market.

American culture--from religion to morality to law--is on what may be an irreversible decline, former U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork said Wednesday on a tour to promote his new book. "If I had been confirmed, I would not have changed much, if anything," said Bork, 69, given what he argues in his book is the court's migration to the left. "I would spend most of my time commiserating with [Justices Antonin] Scalia and [Clarence] Thomas and writing dissents.

Robert Bork, the conservative U.S. Supreme Court nominee rejected by the Senate in 1987, predicted on Saturday that nominee Clarence Thomas will face similar unfriendly treatment by Senate liberals, but ultimately will be confirmed for the post. "The nomination process has become a bloody crossroads where law and politics clash," Bork said. ". . . Clarence Thomas is the current battlefield in that war."

When California lawyer E. Robert Wallach was convicted of fraud and racketeering in the Wedtech defense-contracting scandal last year, he cried foul: A key government witness had committed perjury, he contended. But federal prosecutors turned a deaf ear.

In 1987, the Senate rejected the nomination of Robert Bork by the largest vote in history against a nominee for the Supreme Court, although he was preeminently qualified. His constitutional opinions, which accounted for the nomination, brought his defeat. Bork provoked intense opposition because he was perceived as a conservative judicial activist who had made himself a symbol of opposition to liberal activism.

President Bush is nominating Clarence Thomas, chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, to succeed Robert H. Bork on the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia.