Party Dynamics and Supreme Court Nominations

Party dynamics play a very important role in Supreme Court nominations. Since Supreme Court Justices have life tenure, nominations can affect policy for decades to come. The bipartisan structure of the United States government promotes fierce competition between Democrats and Republicans for spots on the 9-justice court.

One exemplar of this is Robert Bork. When Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell announced his retirement in 1987, President Reagan nominated Bork, who at the time was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, to take his place. However, Bork was a Republican, and if Bork was appointed, the Supreme Court would have become much more conservative, shifting away from its liberal-majority composition. Thus, Democrats did everything in their power to stop him. The liberal media attacked Bork, and Democrats in the Senate bombarded him with questions.

On October 23, 1987, the Senate rejected Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in a roll call vote of 42-58. President Reagan subsequently nominated Anthony Kennedy, a moderate, and he was unanimously confirmed in February 1988.

Bork’s name has since become a word. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “bork” means to “obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) through systematic defamation or vilification.”

Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-H-Bork
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bork_Supreme_Court_nomination