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When a judge assumes the power to decide which distinctions made in a statute are legitimate and which are not, he assumes the power to disapprove of any and all legislation, because all legislation makes distinctions

Robert Bork

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Robert Bork
Age: 85 †
Born: 1927
Born: March 1
Died: 2012
Died: December 19
Former United States Solicitor General
Judge
Lawyer
Pedagogue
Politician
Pittsburg
Pennsylvania
Robert Heron Bork
Power
Legitimate
Made
Legislation
Distinction
Assuming
Statute
Decide
Disapprove
Judge
Statutes
Judging
Distinctions
Makes
Assumes

More quotes by Robert Bork

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The notion that Congress can change the meaning given a constitutional provision by the Court is subversive of the function of judicial review and it is not the less so because the Court promises to allow it only when the Constitution is moved to the left.
Robert Bork
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The Federalist Society has done more for the health of the law than any organization I have witnessed in my career.
Robert Bork
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Under the First Amendment's prohibition of the establishment of religion, the Court has steadily made religion a matter for the private individual by driving it out of the public arena.
Robert Bork
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Our country is being radically altered, step by step, by Justices who are not following any law.
Robert Bork
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The First Amendment is about how we govern ourselves - not about how we titillate ourselves sexually.
Robert Bork
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Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere.
Robert Bork
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No activity that society thinks immoral is victimless. Knowledge that an activity is taking place is a harm to those who find it profoundly immoral.
Robert Bork
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As government regulations grow slowly, we become used to the harness. Habit is a powerful force, and we no longer feel as intensely as we once would have [the] constriction of our liberties that would have been utterly intolerable a mere half century ago.
Robert Bork
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By depriving the charged person of any defenses [the rulings] mean that sexual dalliance, however voluntarily engaged in, becomes harassment whenever an employee sees fit, after the fact, so to characterize it.
Robert Bork
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The judge's authority derives entirely from the fact that he is applying the law and not his personal values. That is why the American public accepts the decisions of its courts, accepts even decisions that nullify the laws a majority of the electorate or their representatives voted for.
Robert Bork
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In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.
Robert Bork
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I was thinking of resigning since I did not want to be perceived as a man who did the president's bidding to save my job. I have had some time to think about it since. I think I did the right thing
Robert Bork
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The right to procreate is not guaranteed, explicitly or implicitly, by the Constitution
Robert Bork
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An egalitarian educational system is necessarily opposed to meritocracy and reward for achievement. It is inevitably opposed to procedures that might reveal differing levels of achievement.
Robert Bork
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The National Rifle Association is always arguing that the Second Amendment determines the right to bear arms. But I think it really is the people's right to bear arms in a militia. The NRA thinks it protects their right to have Teflon-coated bullets. But that's not the original understanding.
Robert Bork
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A society deadened by a smothering network of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either happy or stable.
Robert Bork
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If conservatives come to control the White House and both Houses of Congress, there will be very little change in Hollywood, the network evening news, universities, church bureaucracies, the New York Times, or the Washington Post. Institutions that are overwhelmingly left-liberal will continue to misinform the public and distort public discourse.
Robert Bork
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No church that panders to the zeitgeist deserves respect, and very shortly it will not get respect, except from those who find it politically useful, and that is less respect than disguised contempt.
Robert Bork
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There is no single grand strategy. Just as the New Left abandoned an overarching program and became a series of like-minded groups advancing area by area, so it must counterattacked area by area.
Robert Bork
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[The current governing judicial philosophy is:] If you want something passionately enough, it is guaranteed by the Constitution. No need to fiddle around gathering votes from recalcitrant citizens.
Robert Bork