Robert Bork was a legal scholar, former U.S. Attorney General under Richard Nixon, and Supreme Court nominee. Bork, known for his conservative beliefs, was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 by Ronald Reagan. He failed to receive confirmation, and that is widely thought to have triggered much of the politicalization of the court nominating process.
His name even became a verb in political speak. In slang, to “bork” means to vilify with the aim to thwart their political aspirations.
