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The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law ()


Brothers Judd Top 100 of the 20th Century: Non-Fiction

It's Two! Two! Two books in one!

The primary function of this book is as a brilliant defense of Judge Bork's philosophy of original understanding and an excoriating polemic against judicial intervention.  Surveying the entire history of American jurisprudence, Bork takes on interventionists of the Left and of the Right and makes an irrefutable case for the proposition that judicial intervention is a threat to the very functioning of the Republic.  As you read his arguments and watch him marshal the facts, it's easy to understand why his nomination to the Supreme Court became such a political crucible.  We lost the opportunity to have a really first class mind shape the Court for a generation when he was defeated.

That entire ugly confirmation fight makes up a kind of book within the book.  It is excruciatingly painful to read this section, as genuine criminals, murderers and scum like Ted Kennedy and Howard Metzenbaum and Joe Biden sit in judgment on Bork in the Judiciary Committee hearings.  I can understand why the Left thought it was so important to keep him off of the bench, but the lengths they went to, including lies, character assassination and invasion of privacy, are really sickening and continue to reverberate through our politics today, to noone's benefit.

This is an important book by a decent man who was done wrong.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (A+)


Websites:

Robert Bork Links:

    -WIKIPEDIA: Robert Bork
    -ESSAY: Neutral Principles and Some First Amendment Problems (Robert H. Bork, Yale Law School, Fall 1971, Indiana Law Journal) -ESSAY: Judicial Imperialism: There's one way in which America is as bad as Belgium (ROBERT H. BORK, June 22, 2003, Wall Street Journal)

Book-related and General Links:
    -UNOFFICIAL ROBERT H. BORK HOME PAGE
    -Right or Wrong?    Read what Judge Bork wrote in 1963, and ask yourself, "Was he right, or wrong?" Civil Rights - A Challenge by Robert Bork
    -ESSAY : Having Their Day in (a Military) Court : How best to prosecute terrorists. (Robert H. Bork,  December 17, 2001,  National Review)
    -ESSAY :  Stop Courts From  Imposing Gay Marriage :  Why we need a constitutional amendment.  (Robert Bork, August 7, 2001, Wall Street Journal)
    -ESSAY : Court Ruling  Was No Victory  For Microsoft  King Pyrrhus, meet Bill Gates.  (ROBERT H. BORK AND KENNETH W. STARR, July 5, 2001, Wall Street Journal)
    -ESSAY : Ted Olson is Conservative--Get Over It (Robert Bork, Washington Post)
    -ESSAY : Blue-Slip Blackmail : Democrats declare war over the judiciary. Bush must not surrender. (ROBERT H. BORK , May 10, 2001, Wall Street Journal)
    -ESSAY : Sanctimony serving politics: the Florida fiasco : Reflections on the Supreme Court's internvention in the battle for Florida's electoral votes (Robert H. Bork, New Criterion)
     -ESSAY: Our Judicial Oligarchy  (Robert H. Bork, First Things)
    -ARCHIVES : Index of Articles from The American Enterprise Institute
     -INTERVIEW: (Ann Online)
     -Transcripts  "Affirmative Action and Reaction" (Think Tank)
    -ESSAY : Judge Dread : Even conservatives are shying away from Robert Bork's new book (Walter Olson, Reason)
    -ESSAY : What Robert Bork Doesn't Know (Edward J. Erler, Salvatori Center for the American Constitution)
     -REVIEW ESSAY:  Lawrence Sager: Back to Bork
           The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law by Robert H. Bork
           Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America by Ethan Bronner
           The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination by Michael Pertschuk and Wendy Schaetzel
     -REVIEW: of Battle for Justice How the Bork Nomination Shook America By Ethan Bronner (CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of BATTLE FOR JUSTICE How the Bork Nomination Shook America. By Ethan Bronner (Garry Wills, NY Times)
    -REVIEW: of Slouching Toward Gomorrah:  Judge Dread  Robert Bork's hyperbolic assault on contemporary culture is a best-seller. But it has even his conservative allies backing away (Walter Olson, Reason)
    -REVIEW: Slouching Towards Gomorrah by Robert H. Bork (Joseph Adelson, Commentary)
    -REVIEW: Book Review: "Slouching Towards Gomorrah" (Jeffrey Shallit, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo)
    -REVIEW: of SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH Modern Liberalism and American Decline (Richard A. Epstein, NY Times Book Review)
    -REVIEW : of SLOUCHING TOWARDS GOMORRAH: MODERN LIBERALISM AND AMERICAN DECLINE by Robert H. Bork (Richard A. Glenn,  Law and Politics Book Review)
    -REVIEW ESSAY: Joan Didion: Uncovered Washington
           Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story by Michael Isikoff
           Active Faith: How ChristiansAre Changing the Soul of American Politics by Ralph Reed
           Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline by Robert H. Bork
     -BOOKNOTES: Booknotes Transcript Author: Robert Bork Title: Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline ©-SPAN)
    -ESSAY: The Battle of Bork (Brad Dicken, Intellectual Capital)

GENERAL:
        -ESSAY:    Law Schools vs. Dissenting Views (Aimee Howd, Insight Magazine | June 15, 2000)
    -REVIEW : of Sovereign Virtue The Theory and Practice of Equality, by Ronald Dworkin  Impractical Equality  (Richard A. Epstein, Reason)