Editing Robert Bork (section)

=== "Bork" as a verb ===
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According to columnist [[William Safire]], the first published use of "bork" as a verb was possibly in ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]'' of August 20, 1987, two months prior to the final vote: "Let's just hope something enduring results for the justice-to-be, like a new verb: Borked."<ref>{{cite news |first=William |last=Safire |title=On Language: The End of Minority |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/27/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-5-27-01-on-language-judge-fights.html |work=The New York Times Magazine |id=Document ID 383739671, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851–2004) database |page=12 |date=May 27, 2001|quote=judge fights 'borking' needed to stop court-packing?}}</ref> A well known use of the verb "to bork" occurred in July 1991 at a conference of the [[National Organization for Women]] in New York City. Feminist [[Florynce Kennedy]] addressed the conference on the importance of defeating the [[Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination|nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court]], saying: "We're going to bork him. We're going to kill him politically. This little creep, where did he come from?"<ref>{{cite web |last=Fund |first=John |title=The Borking Begins |url=http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=85000412 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=January 8, 2001 |access-date=August 17, 2007}}</ref> Thomas was confirmed after the most divisive confirmation hearing in Supreme Court history to that point.

In March 2002, the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' added an entry for the verb "bork" as U.S. political slang, with this definition: "To defame or vilify (a person) systematically, esp. in the mass media, usually to prevent his or her appointment to public office; to obstruct or thwart (a person) in this way."<ref>v. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bork {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170827140430/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bork |date=August 27, 2017}}</ref> Supreme Court Justice [[Brett Kavanaugh]], who occupies the seat Bork was nominated to, used the term during his own [[Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination|contentious Senate confirmation]] hearing testimony, when he stated: "The behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment. But at least it was just a good old-fashioned attempt at borking."<ref>{{cite web |title=Kavanaugh hearing: Transcript |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/09/27/kavanaugh-hearing-transcript |publisher=Bloomberg Government |access-date=October 17, 2018}}</ref>