Robert Bork and Grove City College
On a dark February afternoon in 1988, 25 students in a U.S. Constitutional History class waited expectantly in a little-used dining hall on the campus of Grove City College (in Grove City, Pennsylvania) for a special guest lecturer to arrive. I was the professor in charge of that class. Through the doors of that meeting place came Judge Robert Bork, failed Reagan nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Bork, our special visitor, was on campus to deliver, that evening, the first public lecture following his controversial confirmation hearings of some months before. He was escorted by Pittsburgh lawyer and college trustee, Richard G. Jewell. Judge Bork had graciously agreed to meet with the students, most of them pre-law, to answer questions about his view of the Constitution and about law in general. As he entered, the students stood and applauded, a reception that Bork had not received from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He explained, to the GCC students assembled, his view of constitutional interpretation, which was a view held by most jurists until the impact of Progressivism and Legal Realism on the Court in the early 20th century. It was simple and straight forward. In interpreting a constitutional provision, one must be guided by the intent of the Founders or drafters. Judges should endeavor to determine, as best they could, what those who wrote the provisions intended to convey to future generations. Judges should not be activists, substituting their own views for those of the Founders. If the Constitution were to be deemed outmoded in some respect, it was up to the people and their representatives to use the amendment process to alter it. Changing its meaning was not the proper function of the judiciary. Bork was direct, clear and self-deprecating in that hour with GCC students.
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