(HT: Acton Power Blog)

In a recent OpinionJournal piece, Judge Robert Bork attempts to connect the nomination of a replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor, constitutional law, and moral chaos. Though I've read similar accounts arguing that we have a degraded judiciary, or more specifically, a judiciary unaware of its purpose, Judge Bork singles the (in)famous "at the heart of liberty" passage of Justice Kennedy as a defining moment in the Court's substituting moral philosophizing for textual analysis--but this isn't to say that Judge Bork advocates the textualism of Justices Scalia or Thomas. In any event, those who've followed the ongoing debate over originalism should read this piece. It's replete with phrasing unique to Bork's dry, but cutting wit:

Once the justices depart, as most of them have, from the original understanding of the principles of the Constitution, they lack any guidance other than their own attempts at moral philosophy, a task for which they have not even minimal skills.

While I expect some of our readers to disagree with Judge Bork's politics (if he has even espoused any, properly understood), his point is simple: in abandoning the Constitution's deliberate wording, we abandon the rule of law. All that is left is the moral philosophizing of the Court. One needn't accept his brand of Constitutional interpretation to accept (or deny) this point.