Robert Bork hearings: Thomas Sowell discusses civil rights with Joe Biden

[alp227]

Run time: 09:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEOlK4y8AUo   Posted on YouTube: June 19, 2010 By YouTube Member: guyjohn59 Views on YouTube: 22352   Posted on DU: October 24, 2011 By DU Member: alp227 Views on DU: 687

 
A partial transcript is . Libertarian economist and prominent published author Thomas Sowell (then and now) of the Hoover Institute testified at the Robert Bork confirmation hearing on September 25, 1987. The NY Times' account of the hearings is "":

Dr. Sowell, a fellow at the Hoover Institute, a conservative public policy organization in Stanford, Calif., was the only black witness to appear so far in Judge Bork's behalf. Several prominent black people, including William T. Coleman Jr., who was Secretary of Transportation under President Ford, and Barbara Jordan, the former Congresswoman from Texas, have testified against the nominee.

Dr. Sowell said Judge Bork was ''the most highly qualified nominee of this generation'' for the Supreme Court. He also said that he, like Judge Bork, was an opponent of ''judicial activism,'' which Dr. Sowell contended ''has not been beneficial to minorities.''

In this video Biden, then chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, first questions Sowell around the 8 minute mark, after Sowell offered criticisms on affirmative action and questioned whether court rulings were beneficial to minorities. Sowell believed that many black college students were mismatched to elite universities due to aff. ac. and would've been better off in state universities.

This is my 2nd post () looking back at the Bork hearings as today in 1987 the US Senate voted .