The Washington Post Thursday, October 1, 198? A21  
or which rights. What baffles these senators is BorkÛªs recognition of the problem that a judge has to choose among rights and his effort to find some principled basis for the choice. In all of their sentimental demagoguery about rights his opponents have never explained whose rights they want to subordinate. I have heard nothing from Bork to deny that the definition and allocation of rights properly change over time, by legislative action or judicial decisions, in response to changing conditions, including community values. But what I do hear from him is a reluctance to make a leap in the dark, declaring rights in particular cases without weighing the indirect and future consequences of such declarations.</br></br>This brings up the question of precedents. There has been much discussion of whether Judge Bork properly respects the precedents created by previous court decisions. No attention has been paid to the question of a justiceÛªs respect for his successors, who may be bound by the precedents he sets. What I understand Bork to say is that a justice should not set precedents for his successors without carefully considering the full range of their implications.</br></br>The Gnsuxdd case, in which we have all had' an education in the last two weeks, is an example. Here was a stupid Connecticut law banning the use of contraceptives. The question is whether the best way to get rid of that stupid class. His iconodasm, while stimulating in a professor, can be disastrous in a judge. What is important is not how nimble his argument will be, but how his' decisions will affect millions of Americans who will have to live by them.</br></br>So ultimately what weÛªre asking is not only whatÛªs in Judge BorkÛªs mind but also whatÛªs in his heart Is he sensitive to human and racial problems?</br></br>I can hear his supporters saying that here comes the irrational argument. But it is prudence, not irrationality, to give as much emphasis to citizen BorkÛªs past views as to nominee BorkÛªs new views. His supporters say, "CanÛªt one change his views?Û Yes, certainly. Otherwise, how could we, in the last 32 years, have1 moved from a time when the air was heavy with racism to one in which the union of religious faith and civic action has begun to create a new American reality. So, yes, people can change.