NAACP Asked to Keep Open Mind on Bork
White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. appealed today for a civil rights group already on record against Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork to keep an open mind.
“I ask you today not to precipitously oppose this man but rather to wait and see the confirmation hearings and what they paint as a portrait of a man worthy of your serious consideration,” Baker told leaders of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP voted earlier this week at its 78th annual convention to oppose Bork’s confirmation.
Delegates received Baker’s speech politely but responded with a standing ovation when he noted their opposition to the nominee.
“He might change somebody’s mind. Not mine,” NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks said after the 20-minute speech.
President Reagan last week nominated Bork, a federal appeals court judge in Washington, to replace retired Associate Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Critics such as the NAACP, saying Bork would swing the court to the right, have promised a vigorous lobbying effort against him.
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