Today in Supreme Court History: October 20, 1973

10/20/1973: The Saturday Night Massacre occurs.

President Richard Nixon

Comments

[Dr. Ed 2]

What I don't understand is why Nixon simply have Cox murdered.

If Nixon was the type of man that my generation was told he was, if he had a lot of former CIA "wetwork" folk in CREEP, then just have Cox run over by a drunk driver or something.

Hence could Nixon have been more honorable than I was taught?

[NvEric]

You must be under 60.
Those were the smoke-filled room days - more honor and less vicious. Today, today it's an incomprehensible group in DC where the more reporting, the less is known. People are still people, but the need for money corrupts more.

Too much is unknown after WWII, way too much and the impact on us, the People, in conjunction with governmental growth and secrecy has created a schizoid, crazy feedback loop coupled with 'we shouldn't be the World's cop' forming our country into something we can't continue with.

Hope and honor will set us free again, as we we're the last best hope for the World, if we return to first principles.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

No blood.

The attorney general and deputy attorney general back then had more ethics than the current leadership of the department.

OTOH, there have been some signs ethics is still a thing in the Justice Department, and in return there were repeated firings.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

You think Trump has the only partisan hacks in his cabinet? You think Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, had angels? You think Nixon the devil appointed those angels you applaud?

[Krayt]

Bork was 3rd in line, and he did the deed. Supposedly he was gonna resign, too, and the former guys said, no, do it, it has to happen for this to all play out.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Later that year, recalling the events surrounding Mr. Cox's dismissal, Mr. Bork said in an interview: ''I was thinking of resigning not out of moral considerations. I did not want to be perceived as a man who did the President's bidding to save my job." ...

''I had asked the legal counsel to check whether Nixon had the right to fire Cox,'' Mr. Richardson said. ''The legal counsel concluded that he did. Therefore, we thought Bork could do the right thing and deliver that message. Bork deserves a lot of credit for standing up to Nixon and telling him to appoint another special prosecutor.''

Still, there is a lingering feeling, especially among those on Mr. Cox's staff, that Mr. Bork made the wrong decision.

Henry Ruth, the deputy special prosecutor under Mr. Cox, said of Mr. Bork in an interview today, ''If Elliot Richardson said he acted honorably, I certainly trust Elliot's judgment. But I think one has to make the individual judgment. Me, would I have done it? I think everybody in the Watergate staff would have answered no.''

"Bork Irked by Emphasis on His Role in Watergate" [1987]

https://archive.ph/4B0Nr

[This is just a snapshot. A full analysis would take longer, obviously.]

[Frank Drackman]

A Mass-a-cree (HT A. Guthrie) in which no Vince Fosters shot themselves while jerking off.

[Bob from Ohio]

Should have burned the tapes that evening too.

[Frank Drackman]

They'd have impeached him for that too, (why he didn't burn them)
Milhouse was Trump before Trump,

"I ended LBJ's war, and they Indicted me!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Frank

[Bob from Ohio]

It was the tapes which turned GOP voters against him, giving cover to liberal GOP congress critters to desert him. Didn't take many desertions, GOP was far weaker then, and less ideological.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

A few more things.

First, what is the whole reason for the "massacre"?

Nixon wanted Special Prosecutor Cox fired. Only the Attorney General could do that. That helps explain the link in the OP to Morrison v. Olson. That sort of thing is a live issue with debates over presidential removal power.

ER promised in his confirmation hearings that he would not fire the special prosecutor except for cause. Or, to be more specific, dereliction of duty.

Elliot Richardson (who died 12/31/1999) also oversaw the investigation of Vice President Spiro Agnew (whose name can be rearranged in a notable way).

The term allegedly was first used by Art Buchwald.

[Frank Drackman]

Want a good laugh?
Check out Elliot Richardson's Truman Capote-esque Lithp.
He's Capote with a Boston Brahmin accent.
Even bigger laugh? Richardson was considered a serious contender for the 76' Repubiclown POTUS Nomination, thats why he didn't want to get his Upper Crust fingers dirty doing Milhouse's Wet Work.
Oh wait, my bad
The lisp is after he had a Stroke, while AG he spoke fine, distinguished in fact, with that Boston Brahmin twang
Never mind!!! (HT E. Litela)

Frank

[wvattorney13]

The issue has been portrayed at the AG and the deputy AG doing their duty to the Constitution and refusing to perform an unlawful function. However, there was evil Bork waiting in the wings happy to be a Nixon lackey.

None of the players supported that narrative. All three said that they were in agreement with how to proceed. Bork even discussed resigning but all three agreed that Cox was going to be fired one way or the other and that the way that they proceeded allowed Richardson to keep his word to the Senate, show Nixon that they wouldn't do anything he said, but that they would not nuke the Justice Department by having at least Bork staying in power.

That seems to me to have been a reasonable and statesmanlike way to handle it. However, Bork never recovered from it because the narrative in my first paragraph persists despite there being no support for it.

[Frank Drackman]

Bork's explanation is reasonable, Milhouse was going to fire them if he had to go all the way to the White House Janitor (In my mind, would have been a great PR move, have a Black Janitor fire that Boston Brahmin Richardson) so why fall on your own Sword?
Bork originally told Alexander Haig that he would have to resign after firing Richardson, but Haig didn't give a (redacted). By the next day Bork reconsidered, and stayed in Orifice

Frank

[wvattorney13]

Another reason Bork was painted as the devil was that the Democrats in 1987 needed a neutral reason to oppose Bork. Back then a president got huge deference to his SCOTUS picks, and Bork was and remains one of the most learned legal scholars that one could imagine. He was tremendously qualified.

The middle of the road Dems needed a tangible, non-ideological reason to oppose him so they invented this "Bork did Nixon's bidding" narrative.

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Bork's role in the Saturday Night Massacre arose during his confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court. The NYT story I linked was in that context. I think it played a limited role in his defeat.

Bork was nominated to replace Justice Lewis Powell, the swing justice on the Supreme Court. Bork's views would therefore be more significant than the person who replaced Burger (both as Chief Justice and as associate justice).

A "neutral" reason to challenge a judicial nominee remains something that is used in nomination battles. By whoever wants to defeat the judicial nominee. They tend to be of limited value though can have some partisan political value.

Anyway, Bork was open to making the confirmation a battle over his views. Compare Scalia (trivia: you can find C-SPAN coverage of his hearing where he smoking a pipe), who carefully used the "I can't talk about things I might have to decide" approach & generally spoke in more general terms.

The "Saturday Day Massacre" bit didn't help, but the general public & senators (including some more liberal leaning Republicans) didn't care that much about that. It did add to his "deviilsh" qualities (down to his beard). But, ultimately, his beliefs (which he was quite open about) decided the matter.

The senators (correctly) figured the general public didn't support his beliefs, at least, as bluntly as he expressed them. So, ultimately, Judge Anthony Kennedy was confirmed instead.

Popular meme-like things also tend to be more complicated than many think. Bork as a scapegoat is an example. People can find reasons to criticize Bork on other grounds as is usually the case in these situations, though it takes some more heavy lifting.