Robert Bork

Robert Heron Bork was an American judge, government official, and legal scholar. He served as the Solicitor General of the United States from 1973 to 1977. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Senate rejected his nomination. He died in 2012 and is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen Pohl, and two sons, Robert and Charles.

About Robert Bork in brief

Summary Robert BorkRobert Heron Bork was an American judge, government official, and legal scholar. He served as the Solicitor General of the United States from 1973 to 1977. He later served as a judge on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to the U. S. Supreme Court, but the Senate rejected his nomination. Bork is known for his theory that the only way to reconcile the role of the judiciary in the government is to reconcile it with the framers’ original understanding of the Constitution. He also wrote several notable books, including The Antitrust Paradox and Slouching Towards Gomorrah. He died in 2012 and is survived by his wife, Mary Ellen Pohl, a Catholic religious sister turned activist, and two sons, Robert and Charles. He was married to Claire Davidson from 1952 until 1980, when she died of cancer. His father was Harry Philip Bork Jr. and his mother was Elisabeth, a schoolteacher. He is of German and Irish ancestry, while his mother is of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. He once said that the judge who looks outside the Constitution always looks inside the Constitution and always looks himself and nowhere else. He advised presidential candidate Mitt Romney and was a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hudson Institute prior to his death in 2012. He had a daughter, Ellen, and a son, Robert Bork, who is now a professor at the George Mason University School of Law and other institutions.

His daughter Ellen is the mother of Bill Clinton’s daughter, Hillary Clinton, and his son Charles is the father of Hillary Clinton’s son, Charles Bork. He has two grandchildren, Charles and Ellen Bork who is also a professor of law at Yale Law School. He wrote a book on antitrust law, The Ant itrust Paradox, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 1998. He said that consumers often benefit from corporate mergers and that antitrust law should focus on consumer welfare rather than on ensuring competition. He advocated that judges exercise restraint in deciding cases, emphasizing that the courts is to frame principles and not simply ad hoc pronouncements or ad hoc decisions. He worked as a lawyer in private practice in 1954 at Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, and then was a professor from 1962 to 1975, and again from 1977 to 1981. He became a prominent advocate of originalism, calling for judges to hew to the framer’s original understanding. He argued several cases before the Supreme Court. His nomination was defeated in the Senate, with 58 of the 100 Senators opposing his nomination in 1987. The Supreme Court vacancy was eventually filled by another Reagan nominee, Anthony Kennedy, who was eventually appointed to the court in 1988. His wife, Claire Davidson, died in 1980 of cancer, and he was married for more than 30 years. He and his children have three sons, Charles, Robert, and Charles, and Ellen.