Robert Bork, former federal judge and Supreme Court nominee, has died due to heart complications in a Virginia hospital.
Bork was nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan in 1988 but withdrew his name from consideration after contentious Senate hearings headed by then-Senator Joe Biden and Sen. Edward Kennedy. The personal and deeply partisan attacks on Bork during the confirmation process, at the time an unprecedented occurrence, gave rise to the term "Borking"
verb (used with object)
to attack (a candidate or public figure) systematically, especially in the media.