Judge Bork's failed nomination to the Supreme Court is held by many political commentators to mark a change in the political landscape in Washington. Bork was already a controversial figure - as a member of the Nixon Administration he fired the man appointed to investigate Watergate - when he was nominated to the court by President Reagan. He was an unusually vociferous conservative nominee. Most previous nominees has been less so, they may have leaned to the left or right, but the pursuit of an ideological vision was not their primary objective.
But his overt criticism of the liberal direction of the court over the previous decades - and the decisions in cases like Brown and Griswold - galvanized liberal opposition to him and led to his defeat. The term "borking" was coined to refer to this process. This process has become more common since then. So his defeat has been argued to be a factor leading to the ideological polarization we see today.
So despite the fact that his nomination was defeated, he's a key figure in recent political history - perhaps because he was defeated. Here are a few stories about the man:
- Washington Post announcement of his death.
- The Atlantic: The Sad Legacy of Robert Bork.
- WSJ: The Wisdom of Robert Bork.
- US News: Robert Bork's Legacy.
- WP Blog: Bork's influence on antitrust law.
- Balkinization: Bork and the Contingencies of History.
