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

by Robert H. Bork

Book Overview

Judge Bork shares a personal account of the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on his nomination as well as his view on politics versus the law. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0029037611
• ISBN13: 9780029037614
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Slouching Towards Gomorrah

Judge Bork is a brilliant thinker. Book is a masterpiece of brilliant deduction and understanding of critical political, educational and judicial issues in America, and provides the reader with a foundational grasp of why there is such volatile division between political ideologies in America. We need more thinkers and writers like Judge Bork.

An Earth-Shattering Work of Common sense!!

It's hard to imagine a neutral opinion about Robert Bork. Mostly, he is exalted or dismissed because of supposed political views he holds. Liberals dispise his 'anti-abortion' record and conservatives cheer his 'pro-religion' stance. For the record, he is a conservative libertarian (if there really is such a thing) but those who are looking for political argument will find none here. In fact, he admirably restrains with a capital 'R' from political discussion in this book. Instead, he outlays his judicial philosophy of 'original intent'; quite simply, the judge as an extention of a law as seen by its original legislators. Unfortunately, this leads to some results that make modern day liberals cringe. Abortion, private discrimination and the like are nowhere in the constitution thus becoming state and personal issues under amendment X (how many people really pay attention to that amendment anyhow?). Despite these results, Bork insists on judicial neutrality aware that the legislature is the ONLY branch that should have their eye on results. The judiciary simply takes the WRITTEN law and upholds it. The only thing I have a problem with is that sometimes Bork takes a strict textual approach and sometimes not, For example, his view of the 'equal protection' clause as a procedural, not a substantive issue relies strictly on the text of the fourteenth amendment. It would stand to reason that his first amendment view should also rely on text but 'Congress shall make no law..' apparently wasn't what the founders really meant after all. For those not schooled in the current debate over various methods of constitutional interpretation, I would read Jack Rakove's "Interpreting the Constitution" and maybe Antonin Scalia's "Matter of interpretation" first as more views are given than in this book. Again, I stress, if you are looking for Bork's assertion of political views, THIS IS NOT THE BOOK!! Read his other one.

Brilliant Defense of Original Understanding

This book has forever changed how I look at the judicial branch of government, namely by showing that the greatest threat to the rule of law in the United States occurs when the judiciary takes on legislative functions.As Robert Bork explains in this book, there are key differences between legislators and judges which make it vital that judges do not usurp legislative authority. When the judiciary creates the law instead of merely applying it, democratic representative government is replaced by judicial oligarchy. Because Supreme Court judges are unelected, appointed for life, and exercise a governmental power which is virtually unchecked, their decisions can threaten the rule of law when the justices choose to depart from the law in favor of their own moral philosophies.Robert Bork presents a litmus test for all judges to use when extrapolating legal principles from legislation and the Constitution: these principles must be neutrally derived, neutrally defined, and neutrally applied. This doesn't mean that the Constitution itself or other legislation is neutral, but it does mean that when judges hear a case, they must defer their personal moral philosophies to the rule of law. The law must provide the standard of neutrality which the judge is to apply, not the judge's own subjective views.This book is a masterpiece of judicial analysis. Robert Bork not only builds an excellent case for his thesis, but addresses the major arguments against his thesis in a way that bolsters his argument's credibility. This book examines the phenomenon of judicial activism superbly, not only offering criticism, but presenting a logical solution.

Brilliant book shows why the far Left feared Bork so

The Tempting of America is the finest book ever written in defense of the judicial theory known as 'original understanding.' In this brilliant tome, Bork enunciates the dangers and abuses (by activist judges of the Right as well as the Left) inherent in rejecting the original understanding, shows the logical impossibility of constructing an unbiased alternative and shows that the original understanding is not only what the Founding Fathers intended, but is the only safe and non-partisan way to allow a free people to govern itself.

Compelling, well-reasoned, troubling.

There are those who believe judges are incorruptable, whose judgment is beyond question and whose fairness is a given. . . and then there are those who know better. Robert Bork not only knows better, but he tells us how the judicial system has become corrupted by the infectious agenda of political correctness. Bork speaks with the authority of one who knows. His book sounds a warning call to those who love the law, and who suspect the judiciary may very well have transformed itself into the most dangerous branch of government. Paul J. Walkowski, Author, "From Trial Court to the United States Supreme Court"