![]() The Reagan Administration’s inability to answer those charges, combined with Bork’s clumsy performance in the hearings, doomed his chances. Bork’s opponents used his extensive body of writing and speeches to characterize him as an extremist. Indeed, Bork’s was the first truly modern Supreme Court confirmation: a full-blown electoral fight filled with interest group involvement, political lobbying, and manipulation of media coverage. Bork’s failed appointment departed from that trend and marked the first time in nearly a century in which the Senate rejected a nominee on the basis of ideology. While previous unsuccessful nominees generated their fair share of political controversy, concerns over ethics or qualifications played the significant role in their rejections. Media coverage of recent Supreme Court nominations often cite Bork’s as the primary explanation for how modern confirmations have become so bitter.4 Some scholars, like Laura Kalman, contend that the true change began earlier-in the 1960s and 1970s.5 This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the Bork battle not as a singular event, but as the culmination of two decades of growing politicization over the role of the Supreme Court in American life. This particular saga occupies a prominent place in the popular imagination. ![]() Bork to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.”3 With that sentence, Reagan set off one of the most contentious nomination battles in recent history. 1 President Ronald Reagan walks into a packed White House Press Room, followed by a man sporting what a Washington Post columnist called “Fu Manchuish facial hair.”2 The president steps up to the podium and announces to the assembled reporters that, “it’s with great pleasure … that I today announce my intention to nominate United States Court of Appeals Judge Robert H.
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