Share

Public Program: Washington, DC Policy Speaker Series - "Was Bork Right about Judges?" with Judge Thomas Griffith

Please join us for the first public talk in the Washington, DC Policy Speaker Series.  Judge Griffith will present, “Was Bork Right about Judges?” in Rockefeller 003 at 4:30 pm on October 22, 2014.

Judge Thomas Griffith, a justice for the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, is the first speaker in the Washington, DC Policy Speaker Series, co-hosted by the Department of Government and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is the second most powerful court in the nation and often a stepping-stone to the United States Supreme Court.
Judge Griffith's talk, “Was Bork Right about Judges?” will explore Judge Robert Bork’s view that judges should follow a constricted constitutional vision based on the “original intention” of the framers and reject those that evolved in later generations. Judge Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Reagan in 1987, a nomination that was rejected in the Senate not because of Judge Bork’s qualifications but rather because of his judicial philosophy and temperament. This represented a changing moment and a lasting partisan divide in judicial nominations.
Judge Thomas Griffith
Judge Griffith was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in June 2005. A graduate of Brigham Young University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Griffith has been engaged in private practice and has served as Senate Legal Counsel of the United States. In that capacity, he represented the interests of the Senate in litigation and advised the Senate leadership and its committees on investigations, including the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Judge Griffith also served as Assistant to the President and General Counsel of Brigham Young University, as General Counsel to the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, and was a member of the United States Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, which examined the role of Title IX in intercollegiate athletics. Judge Griffith has long been active in the American Bar Association’s Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative. Since joining the Court, Judge Griffith has taught courses on Presidential Powers and Judicial Process at the Brigham Young University Law School and on the Role of an Article III judge at Stanford Law School.