By October 1973 special prosecutor Archibald Cox was tracing the Watergate cover-up to the Oval Office. President Nixon demanded that he stop. In the “Saturday Night Massacre” two heads of the Justice Department quit before Nixon found a subordinate (Robert Bork) willing to fire Cox. Immediately public opinion swung against the president and turned Cox into a hero—seemingly Washington’s last honest man.Cox’s life was distinguished well before that Saturday night. He had been a clerk for the legendary judge Learned Hand, a distinguished professor at Harvard Law School, and the Solicitor General, arguing many Supreme Court cases. He exemplified what we want lawyers to be. At its core Archibald Cox is the story of a Yankee who went to Washington but refused to leave his principles behind.
The inspiring career of the New England lawyer who became an American hero by insisting that not even the president was above the law. A great read, it will be even more timely when published in paperback.
Profiles the former Solicitor General of the United States and Harvard law professor who served as the special prosecutor investigating the Watergate break-in Ken Gormley is a professor of law at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh, and is also mayor of Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Watergate made Cox a national hero when Richard Nixon fired him as special prosecutor in what became notorious as the Saturday Night Massacre. Yet despite Cox's acclaim for stubborn fairness, Dequesne University law professor Gormley writes, "he would never... receive the top prizes of his profession. He would remain a footnote in American history." That Cox is worth more than a footnote is the substance of this admiring biography, which brings to life an essentially private man who personified integrity in public life. Although Watergate dominates the book, often while on leave from Harvard Law School he became a major player as John Kennedy's solicitor general with such landmark cases as the one-person one-vote decision. On the occasion when Kennedy borrowed Cox for legislative advice and thanked his Harvard dean "for your kindness in freeing Professor Cox from his academic duties," Dean Griswold shot back: "It is only because of his great ability and energy that he was able to carry on both duties at the same time." Avoiding arid legalese, Gormley effectively evokes Cox and his contemporaries. Richardson, who resigned as Nixon's attorney general rather than fire Cox (solicitor general Robert Bork wielded the ax), contributes a preface. (Oct.) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews
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