In case you haven't gotten it that conservative tend to be massive hypocrites when it comes to preaching one thing and doing another, we the example of Robert Bork today. If you remember, he was a Supreme Court Justice nominee that didn't make it to the bench during the Reagan years. He is also a big proponent of tort reform to rid the nation of so-called frivolous lawsuits.
From The American Constitution Society:
Judge Robert Bork, one of the fathers of the modern judicial conservative movement whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, is seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, after he slipped and fell at the Yale Club of New York City. Judge Bork was scheduled to give a speech at the club, but he fell when mounting the dais, and injured his head and left leg. He alleges that the Yale Club is liable for the $1m plus punitive damages because they "wantonly, willfully, and recklessly" failed to provide staging which he could climb safely.
I hope he recovers from his injuries but a repudiation of his entire ethos might be in order here. Suing for a million dollars because there wasn't a rail to hold going up a small set of stairs? Come on, that is frivolity at its best. His friends in the tort reform community didn't take too kindly to the lawsuit either.
From Overlawyered:
Before someone accuses us of playing this down, let me be out front and say that I find Judge Bork's slip and fall suit against the Yale Club embarrassingly silly. The Wall Street Journal has the complaint. Judge Bork, speaking at the Yale Club, attempted to climb a raised dais that had no stairs or handrail; the 79-year-old failed to do so, and fell back, and hurt himself severely. I sympathize with Judge Bork's serious injuries, but it's beyond me what his lawyers are thinking in asking for punitive damages. And if any danger is open and obvious such that there is an assumption of the risk, surely the absence of stairs to reach a lectern on a dais is—especially if the dais is of the "unreasonable" height that the complaint alleges it to be.
He's right, this is embarrassingly silly. A million dollar suit for having no handrails is a little nuts. If he needed some assistance to get up the stairs in his old age, he could have just asked. That would be taking personal responsibility. But no, he has to go and file a frivolous lawsuit.
Taking a step back from the incident, Bork fought against all lawsuits that went after large corporations that were not complying with the law or treating their employees fairly. It wasn't just about slipping on some stairs and wanting a million dollars. What he fought against was the average American making claims against people that did them wrong.
