Finding common ground: My meeting with Judge Robert Bork

By Susie Headlee (Guest Contributor)–

We live in divided times, when people self-select themselves into siloes and seem uninterested in reaching out to others who may think differently. My friendship with Judge Robert Bork taught me, however, that different-thinking people can be a source of great joy.

I first heard about Robert Bork in 1973 while I was in high school when he fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during what is commonly known as “The Saturday Night Massacre.”  At the time, President Nixon had ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox and Richardson refused. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to carry out the firing and he also refused. Nixon then ordered the third-most-senior official at the Justice Department, Solicitor Robert Bork to fire Cox and Bork did so.  Bork then intended to resign immediately afterward, however, Nixon and Ruckelshaus persuaded Bork to remain for the good of the Justice Department.  

Like most Americans at the time, we were barraged with newspaper articles about Watergate, Cox, Bork, new special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and Nixon’s ultimate resignation in 1974. 

Then in 1987, Robert Bork was once again in the limelight.  I became extremely interested in politics, the judicial nomination process, and Judge Bork himself.  I watched with interest as President Reagan nominated Judge Bork for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and I assumed he would pass through like justices before him.  I watched Ted Kennedy on the evening news strongly condemning Bork on national television; and later read Bork’s terse response.  It was fascinating.  I began self-educating about swing votes, senate confirmation hearings, judicial appointments, and I even wrote a paper in college about Bork.

By all accounts, Judge Bork was charming, intellectual, and even from my limited knowledge at the time, I began to realize that he would not make it through the Senate confirmation hearings. On October 23, 1987, the Senate rejected Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

In 1990 Judge Bork published The Tempting of America, so I purchased the book to learn more about his social and legal philosophy and his own account of his nomination that he entitled The Bloody Crossroads, which referred to the “crossroads where politics and law meet.”  Through his book and other writings, I learned about strict constructionism, original intent, privacy rights, due process, etc.  For a myriad of reasons, I found that I was at the other end of the spectrum, and I did not agree with him philosophically.  What I also discovered, however, was that I admired him.  I admired his service to the People of the United States, his choice to not try and defend himself to the media, and to remain true to his own (what I felt) misguided beliefs.

This is where my story becomes more personal.  In 1998 I was working in Alaska for a federal judge and learned it was Judge Bork’s birthday on March 1.  I decided to hold a birthday party for Judge Bork and invited the law clerks, staff and others to the party.  I took snaps of the cake and flowers (I went all out!) and mailed them to Judge Bork in D.C.  I was disappointed when I never heard back from him, nor did I receive a thank you card (as my southern grandmother said was always appropriate).   

In 1999, my husband Paul and I were traveling to Washington, D.C. where I was presenting to colleagues about Idaho’s Citizens Law Academy.  It was my first trip to Washington and so I decided to ring Judge Bork and ask to meet him.  He was working at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a public policy think tank.  I picked up the phone called the AEI, expecting his secretary to answer the phone.  Instead, Judge Bork answered the phone.  I told him who I was (the woman who threw the birthday party in Alaska).  I am pretty sure I had to reassure him I was not a stalker, and that I simply admired him and asked to meet.  During this time, Judge Bork was on the speaking circuit and was receiving large amounts of money to serve as a guest speaker at different events.  Shockingly, he said he would meet us.

I then began thinking about what I would give him as a parting gift (a southern tradition in my part of the world). The parting gift can be tricky – it has to be meaningful enough to the giver but not so expensive that the receiver will be uncomfortable receiving it.  For the likes of me, I couldn’t figure out what to give him.  So I did what any good Catholic would do, I prayed.  I am not a religious zealot by any sense of the word, but I am a rather deeply religious woman who believes in the power of prayer. 

A couple of days later, I exclaimed to Paul that God had answered my prayer and I knew exactly what I was going to give Judge Bork – the Catholic rosary I had received during my own confirmation.  Paul thought it was a very bad idea for many reasons – we didn’t know if Judge Bork was religious; we didn’t know if he was Jewish; we didn’t know if he would be offended.  But nope, I knew God had spoken and that was to be my gift.

The big day arrived – the day I would meet Robert Bork – the man I had been reading about since 1973.  Paul had been suggesting to me not to get my hopes up – that a day or two before the meeting, Bork would have his secretary ring and cancel for some made-up reason.  I wouldn’t budge.  In my mind, Judge Bork was a man of his word, and he would not cancel our meeting.

That morning (December 2, 1999) was the biggest snowstorm in the history of Washington, D.C.  Judge Bork’s secretary called and said he was shoveling snow and couldn’t get out of his driveway and would not be able to meet us.  Paul was sure this was the fictious call that would be coming.  But, she said, he could “meet tomorrow.”  So of course, I said we could too.

The next day we arrived at his small office in the AEI.  It was more like a closet – small, no windows. He chain-smoked the whole time we were there.  He was wonderful to us.  We talked as if we were old friends, he never looked at his watch, and we were there about 45 minutes to an hour.  We talked about judicial restraint, his views on the Constitution and our favorite founding fathers.  He did not disappoint me.  I am a true fan – not of his judicial philosophy but him.  The man. Robert Bork.

Upon departing, it was time for the presentation of the parting gift—my Catholic rosary, which had true significance to me.  I started talking with him about having a small gift for him and you could see him openly bristle when I reached into my handbag.  When I brought it out and presented it to him, he seemed stunned and truly moved.  He then went on to explain that several years ago his wife Claire had died, and his second wife Mary Ellen was a former nun, and he was in the process of completing his conversion to Catholicism.  He was 76 years old when he was baptized.  The Catholic rosary was the perfect parting gift.  I really had listened to God’s word for indeed it was the perfect parting gift.  All in all, this sounds like a fictious story, but its truthfulness is evidenced by his parting gift to us, a signed copy of Tempting of America – the Political Seduction of the Law and a photo of us taken by his secretary that day. 

I think it is good to have people you admire who do not think like you, do not have the same philosophy as you but somehow you find the common denominator.  In Judge Bork’s case, it was our common Catholic faith. I am so glad we shared it.

*Susie Headlee is the Director of Recruiting and Legal Services at the law firm of Parsons Behle & Latimer. She previously served as ADR/Pro Bono coordinator for the United States District Court for the District of Idaho, and as chief administrator for Chief Judge Lynn B. Winmill from 2000 to 2010. She also worked for ten years with Judges Arthur Alarcón, Andrew Kleinfeld, and Stephen Trott of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.