Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork on July 1st, 1987, despite being specifically
warned against it by the Democrats. Nonetheless, Bork’s nomination was taken up in a timely fashion by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was then chaired by Joe Biden who also happened to be running for president and hardly needed the headache of dealing with uncompromising liberal activist groups. Perhaps Biden’s ambition played some role in how he conducted himself, but
Bork received a hearing.
On October 6th, the Judiciary Committee voted 9-5 to reject Bork’s nomination, which in the ordinary course of events would have meant that Bork received no further consideration- no full floor debate and no final confirmation vote.
That’s not what happened though. Bork refused to withdraw his name from consideration and penned an
open letter explaining why.
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The Democrats acceded to his demand for “a full debate and a final Senate decision.
On October 23rd, the full Senate rejected Bork’s nomination in a 42-58 vote.