Robert Bork

Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 58 to 42, making it one of the largest rejection margins for a Supreme Court nominee in U.S. history. Opposition centered on concerns about his conservative legal philosophy regarding civil rights, privacy, and his role in the Nixon-era Saturday Night Massacre when he carried out Nixon's order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox.

As Solicitor General in October 1973, Bork was the highest-ranking Justice Department official willing to carry out President Nixon's order to fire Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, after both Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned in protest rather than execute the order. This event became known as the Saturday Night Massacre and was heavily raised during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings.

After serving as Solicitor General and briefly as Acting Attorney General, Bork was appointed as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982 by President Reagan. He served on the D.C. Circuit until his Supreme Court nomination in 1987 and continued in a senior status capacity afterward.

Bork's most influential scholarly work is widely considered to be his 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox, which argued that antitrust law should focus solely on consumer welfare rather than broader social or political goals. This approach significantly influenced the direction of American antitrust jurisprudence in the decades that followed.