Students Form Anti-Bork Group

The newly-formed Harvard Committee for a Just Supreme Court yesterday began a four-day letterwriting campaign against Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork.

Committee members, who began canvassing the dining halls yesterday, said they hope to persuade as many as 5000 Harvard students to sign form letters opposing the appointment. The committee will send the letters to the students' hometown Senators.

Students at a university where "respect for individuals and freedom of inquiry" are treasured should be especially concerned about Bork's possible ascension to the Supreme Court, said co-chairman Kenneth A. Gerber '89.

Gregory R. Schwartz '89, another committee co-chairman, said he hoped the committee would "heighten awareness" of the issues at stake in the Bork hearings. He added that committee members hoped to "mobilize the campus" in opposition to Bork.

Schwartz said that the most effective way for Harvard students to affect the Bork confirmation was through letters to their hometown Senators. He advised students to emphasize the fact that they were voting residents of their home states, and not that they were Harvard students.

The Committee for a Just Supreme Court plans to distribute form letters and fact sheets on Bork in the dining halls for the rest of the week.

Schwartz said the first day produced "a pretty good turnout."

Committee members at Leverett House said they had distributed more than 40 letters to students during lunchtime on Tuesday."

Gerber said he was "very pleased" with responses to the tabling so far at Currier House, where he said he had distributed more than 20 letters in the first five minutes of the dinner hour on Tuesday evening. He said students seemed "very eager and very receptive" to the anti-Bork campaign.

At Quincy House, committee member Lisa M. Bornstein '89 called responses to the tabling "really good." She added that many students had taken the time to write their own letters opposing the Bork nomination instead of signing the committee's forms.

The Harvard Committee for a Just Supreme Court is chaired by Gerber, Schwartz, Gillian Darlow '89, and Jennifer L. Sturman '91. The committee has received funding and support from the Massachusetts Teachers' Association and from the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

The committee received preliminary approval from Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III at the beginning of the fall term. In order to become an official Harvard student organization it would also need approval from Harvard's Committee on College Life. However, members said the committee plans to disband as soon as the Senate confirmation hearings end.